


Sacrilegious

by allislaughter



Category: The LEGO Movie (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Angels, Alternate Universe - Human, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-17
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-07 23:06:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 36,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3186653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allislaughter/pseuds/allislaughter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He drank coffee religiously while the other ate croissants like a sin....</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

He drank coffee religiously while the other ate croissants like a sin. Neither were devout, despite their parents’ attempts, the pious church outings only leading to jeers about demon possession whenever he showed his face in place of the other. They wanted to believe in a higher power, but couldn't find it on those Sunday mornings dressed in their best kiddy clothing, the kind that looked nice in theory but always ended up with some dirt on them when another kid knocked them down.

He knocked out someone's teeth ("They were already loose" he claimed) one time that it happened, and their parents decided not to push him to attend anymore. They cared more about his well-being than teaching religion to him, to the point that their recaps on the sermon of the day eventually faded to quiet Sunday dinners after he and the other both agreed they didn't like hearing about people who would say they were evil just for having another side to them.

So, now as adults, he had coffee in the mornings and at various points in the day, while the other tried to eat as many croissants as he could without inducing his ire. It was the closest they had to a belief system, that coffee was godly and croissants were temptation, something of an inside joke between the two of them, but then they met _him_. The man who believed in space.

They knew each other vaguely, from an incident that they didn't need to speak of again, and out of the blue one day, the man thanked them for letting him build his spaceship during that incident. He didn't know how to take it so the other covered for him and asked the man to join him for coffee and croissants.

The man agreed, as excitable as he was, and the man and the other carried most of the conversation while he hid in the back of their mind. He had done things to the man and his friends he wasn't proud of, not anymore, and he only came back out after they were seated in that new coffee shop with less ridiculous prices than they had been before in other shops.

"Aren't you going to drink your coffee?" the man asked while the other polished off his second croissant.

"I don't drink that stuff," the other answered. He switched in and grabbed the cup, hesitantly staring at it before daring to take a sip.

Godly, as always, and he set down the cup and quickly confessed his grievances. "I'm sorry," he insisted. "For everything. You don't have to be kind to me."

"Dude, relax," the man replied, laughing as lightly as the coffee was dark. "I _want_ to. I heard the others say you haven't been taking things well."

"What's your name again?" he muttered, almost hoping the man wouldn't hear or respond.

"Ben Chu," he answered. "You can call me Benny."

"Danny Copper," the other introduced, holding out his hand. "Or, Good and Bad, I suppose."

"No problem," Benny smiled, shaking his hand before going back to his cup. Decaf, Bad noted, a perfect contrast to Benny's ever alert, somewhat hyper, form. "Really though, anything you need to talk about? I know you… I know you didn't come out completely unharmed."

"Don't worry," Good assured him, reaching for another croissant. "I'll be fine."

"And Bad?" Benny pressed on, leaning forward slightly.

Good swallowed his mouthful and Bad switched out, dropping the croissant onto the plate like a heated penny on his bare skin. "I'll be fine," he repeated the other's words, hoping for the best.

"You shouldn't lie, man," Benny frowned at him. "Neither of you."

"I wasn't…" Good trailed off and bowed his head. "Alright, Benny," he apologized.

Benny nodded at him and reached across the table to pat his hand. "It's okay. Your parents forgive you. Both of you. They know you had to do whatever you did."

"How would you know?" Bad asked, straightening his back to try and intimidate and tower over the already shorter man.

"I _talked_ to them," Benny answered, smirking at him, unfazed. "They talked to all of us. They're looking for some way to get you to forgive yourself and stop avoiding everyone."

"Croissant?" Good asked suddenly as he held out his plate. He smiled to hide nervousness and waited for the subject to change.

"Too buttery," Benny answered, shaking his head. "Why did you get so many anyway?"

Bad frowned at him and set the croissant plate down. "That's not important."

"It's weird," Benny answered. "So, does only Good eat the croissants while only you drink coffee?"

He stared at the table and its contents before carefully nodding. "Yeah…"

"Good must _really_ like croissants, then," Benny mused. "Really, it's like one of those desserts you get at restaurants that have like fifteen different things of chocolate and they call it 'sinful' but people eat it anyway because they like chocolate enough to eat that much."

"Sinful?" Good asked.

"Dude, you have like ten croissants. You ate two already. You got a dozen croissants."

"I'll take most of them home," Good insisted. Bad shook his head and watched Benny shrug and drink the last of his coffee. Bad took a large gulp of his and then set down the half-empty cup. He stared at the man from behind those dark shades of his, still seeing clearly Benny's broken blue spacesuit, warm smile, floating stature… It was almost mystical how the man could float in the air like that, as if he were still in space.

"Benny," Bad started, unsure where he was going with the name. "Benny," he repeated. "What do you believe in?" he settled.

"What I believe in?" Benny asked, wrinkling his nose. "Like… In terms of what?"

"Religion," Bad asked. "A higher power, an afterlife, anything…"

The man shrugged at him. "That's kind of out of nowhere… I'm, uh… I'm not sure. I don't really think about it much. I mean, if someone believes that, for instance, coffee is holy or divine, then so what? As long as they don't hurt anyone because of it, then there's nothing wrong with that."

Bad almost gripped the fragile cup too tightly. Good recovered for him and leaned closer to Benny, listening raptly.

"But is there anything you believe in?" he prompted again.

"Space," Benny blurted, almost embarrassed. "I believe in space. It's there, it's real, I've seen it in person… Dude, you have _no_ idea how amazing it is to see the Earth from the surface of the moon, or to be on another planet, or, or… Or whatever! It's… It's…"

"It's breathtaking?" Good volunteered, frowning soon after as Benny flinched at the word. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't worry," Benny reassured him. "I'll be fine."

Bad shook his head. "You shouldn't lie."

Benny smiled sheepishly and got up. "Maybe I should go…"

"No, wait," Good insisted, standing as well. "Stay, please… Or let me come with you?"

There was a long silence before Benny nodded. "Alright. I'll wait here while you get a box for those croissants."

Good grinned and hurried off, returning shortly after for his food. Bad drank the last of his coffee and tossed the paper cup in the trash as he followed Benny out.

"But seriously, man," Benny sighed as they traveled down the street. "You know how they say we're made of star stuff? The elements made by stars throughout their lives clump together, make planets and moons, and under the right circumstances, they make people. And you've seen how diverse life is… Unicorn-cats, mermaids, humans…" He looked at him, almost knowingly, and then smiled. "Some with two faces…"

Bad kept a stoic look and just marched alongside Benny, content to stay silent and let the man finish.

"And, like, you think about it and you realize that it didn't need to do all this." He laughed, face brightening like the sun. "If something happened differently, we might not be here to talk now. You can either think it's a higher power who did that, which means they put an amazing amount of work into making the universe exactly as it is, or you can think how even more amazing it would be if everything was a coincidence made by space over billions of years."

"Space could be the higher power," Good offered.

Benny turned towards him, grin stretching across his face at the thought. "It could! That would be great!"

Good smiled in return, and then chuckled as he turned his head away. "Benny, I'm glad you chose to talk to me today. I feel better than I have in ages…"

"Glad I could help," Benny answered.

Bad frowned at him. "But I want to know why you _did_ choose to talk to me."

Benny shrugged. "Hey, everyone's worried about you, and I wanted to see what's up. Are you actually avoiding everyone if you asked to hang out with me?"

Chuckling nervously, Good shrugged. "Yes," he answered, flinching.

"Why make the exception for me, then?" Benny asked, lifting his brow.

"Loneliness," Bad answered quietly. "Avoiding everyone gets gloomy after a while."

Benny nodded. "Alright. Look, dude, if you ever want to talk, let me know. Whatever you're comfortable with. I just want you to feel better about things, even if it takes a while, y'know?"

"I'm not sure if I will," Bad mumbled.

"It'll take time," Benny shrugged. "But it won't happen if you don't let it. But, y'know, don't let anyone push you into feeling better before you're ready."

Good leaned forward and kissed the top of Benny's helmet. "At least you're more understandable."

Benny pulled away, blinking dumbly. "Why did you just do _that_ …?"

Bad scowled and averted his eyes. "Sorry." He continued to look away even as a hand slipped around his, but he glanced up as Benny cleared his throat and he sighed at the man's concerned look.

"You're not a bad guy," Benny told him. "Neither of you. No one is inherently bad. Even if they make bad choices… Selfish ones… They usually think they're making the right choice, I noticed. But if you learn from your mistakes and do your best to redeem yourself, earn everyone's forgiveness, it'll be fine. You'll be fine, like you said."

Bad pulled his hand away and shook his head. "This isn't right…"

"Hey, man, you kissed me first," Benny retorted. "I can hold your hand if I want."

"No, I mean…" Bad frowned and gazed at Benny as he put his hand on his shoulder. "I didn't think I'd find god in a 1980s spaceman…"

"Dude, what?" Benny pulled away a second time, his voice a little higher than normal. "What the _heck_ do you mean by that?"

"Darnit, I…" Bad groaned and slipped a hand under his glasses. "It's an expression…"

Benny shook his head. "I don't think you're using it right, then…"

"I mean that you helped me out," Bad tried to clarify. "More than I expected. You're the closest thing I've met to a god-."

"Dude, what?" Benny repeated, interrupting him. "What? I… I got to go…"

"No, no, wait!" Good grabbed onto Benny's shoulder, but Benny quickly wormed out of his grasp and propelled himself off the ground and onto the awning above them. "I'm sorry!" Good rushed to apologize. "Bad didn't mean anything… Offensive…?" he offered, unsure of the problem.

"It's not _that_ ," Benny hissed at him, peeking down from over the edge of the awning. "Just… Ugh, I don't know what to _say_ to that…"

Bad cringed and glared at the ground, mumbling a gruff "sorry" that he hoped Benny heard.

"You know the space museum on 21st and Apollo?" Benny asked suddenly. "Meet me there on Sunday. Eight in the morning fine with you?"

"Um… Sure…?" Good looked up at Benny, blinking at him and then took a deep breath and looked away. "Alright, I'll meet you then…"

Bad glanced up one last time and then hurried away, as fast as he could without looking suspicious. The other whispered to him inside their mind.

_"I found god in him too."_

They both ignored the burning thought of how messed up in the head they were as they waited for Sunday to come.


	2. Chapter 2

They woke up early that Sunday, like they woke up early any other day, and they stared at their usual breakfast items before tossing both and replacing them with waffles and orange juice.

"This is going to be awkward," Bad mumbled before taking a bite of the jam-covered toaster pastry.

Good washed down the food with the tangy drink and then sighed. "Should we really go see him? After last time?"

Neither of them could answer, and so the merely consumed their unusual meal in silence, slowly, as if eating too quickly would be an insult. An odd note to start their day with, a sudden change from their normal routine, but they couldn't even look at their usual devotions at the moment, their back facing the coffee maker and box of croissants. They didn't have the same taste to them after that last meeting with Benny, after his appalling confession of likening the spaceman to a god.

Coffee and croissants were only ever figurative icons, metaphors in their mind given Bad's typical need of coffee to stay alert and Good's overindulgence in his favorite food, an inside joke no one ever knew of or could even have the ability to reference due to how unlikely the thought would occur.

Benny referenced both, off-hand, in the same conversation, along with saying other things that caught them off-guard. He was a sudden burst of companionship and kindness, that perhaps they were just so starved of comfort they chose to compare _him_ to godliness and…

"You _kissed_ him," Bad growled suddenly, jumping to his feet. "Why did you _kiss_ him?"

"I don't know," Good answered, expression contorting to one of confusion. "It just seemed like a good idea at the time… Speaking of…"

Bad glanced at the clock and nodded, rushing out of the kitchen to finish getting ready before they were late.

"We'll be alright this time?" Good asked, buttoning up a gray shirt.

"We won't say something completely weird that freaks him out," Bad corrected, tucking the shirt into black pants. He combed his hair in a few quick swipes and then hurried out to his car. He pulled out onto the road and sighed.

"Maybe we _should_ talk to our parents soon if we're going to just get weird about attention like this," he pointed out.

Good nodded. "To find god is to change for the better," he mused.

"Now, why didn't you say _that_ instead of letting me embarrass myself by calling him god-like?"

"I only thought of it last night."

"Darnit…"

The rest of the trip transpired in silence and they soon pulled into the museum parking, his being one of only three cars on the lot. He locked the door and traveled around to the front of the museum, unsure just when and where Benny would appear.

"Hey, I didn't think you'd show up."

Good turned around, jumping back suddenly like a panicked cat at the upside down face hanging right in front of him. Benny laughed and grabbed onto Good's shoulder to turn himself upright and pull himself closer to the ground.

"Sorry, I just thought that'd be hilarious," Benny giggled.

"Don't do that," Good breathed out, patting his chest to settle his fast-beating heart. "If Bad were out, he might have hit you…"

Benny grinned sheepishly and shrugged at him. "Okay, yeah, that would suck. How's Bad doing anyway? After the, uh… Last time I saw you guys…"

Bad groaned and shoved his hand under his glasses, over his eyes. "I have _no_ idea why I said that _thing_ to you and I've been regretting it since."

Benny patted his arm and waited for him to drop his hand back to his side. "It's okay. It's not like it was only the second time we met and the first time we actually said more than two things to each other and you were suddenly kissing my helmet and comparing me to a god."

Good frowned at him. "I'm sorry about that, I didn't even realize what I was doing."

"Yeah, I, uh…" Benny furrowed his brow and formed a tight frown with his lips. He motioned for him to follow and then went into the space museum, holding the door open to let him in.

"We're not open yet today," a woman told them from the admissions desk. She glanced up at them, lifting her brow in surprise. "Oh, Ben, it's you. That a friend of yours?"

"Something like that…" Benny answered, shrugging. "Can we get in early? It's more fun when the place is still empty."

"You want to go into _that_ room, don't you?" the woman asked, smiling at him with a knowing look.

"Me?" Benny asked, placing his hands on his chest as innocently as he could. "Nooo, of course not." He grinned and laughed. "Yeah, can I?"

The woman turned towards Good and smiled warmly at him. "Do you get vertigo or any kind of motion sickness?"

"N-No?" Good answered, blinking in confusion.

The woman opened a drawer and rummaged through it before pulling out a ring of keys and passing them over to Benny. "I'll tell 'Kosh' you're in there. May I ask what…?" she trailed off to let Benny answer.

He glanced up, humming as he pondered his response. "Not quite a Gothos," he decided. "More like McCoy's Directive."

"I would _hope_ not a Gothos," the woman replied, pulling a face somewhere between disgust and appalment. "McCoy's Directive, though?"

Benny shrugged and jutted a thumb in Good's direction. "He pulled a Yang's Victor on me the other day."

She winced and nodded. "Well, okay, but still. McCoy's Directive in _that_ room?"

Benny grinned and jumped over the turnstiles, winking at both of them as he backed away. "If I'm blowing his mind, I'm doing it in style. Dude, c'mon, let's go."

Good blinked dumbly at the exchange, lost in a maze trying to navigate the strange references and their meanings, and then glanced at the woman. She waved for him to follow and he sighed and hurried after Benny.

"So, dude…" Benny started as they traveled through the museum. "Did I say anything… Y'know, _weird_ the last time I saw you? Or, weirder than usual?"

"Not as weird as what I said, based on your reaction," Bad answered, frowning.

Benny sighed and shook his head. "Look, man, you're going to have to stop beating yourself up about that, and I'll show you why in a moment. Seriously though, did I say anything that had some obscure meaning for you that I shouldn't know about?"

Bad bobbed his head and glanced off to the side at a display of a model spaceship, not unlike the one Benny made a while back. "Good and I have an… An inside joke…"

"About?"

"Coffee and croissants…" Good answered softly. "Coffee is godly and croissants are sinful…"

Benny stopped in his tracks and slowly turned towards Good. He then doubled over, his laughter ringing in the quiet hallway. "Oh my _gosh_ , it's _always_ something weird like that. _Every_ time."

"What do you mean, spaceman?" Bad asked, scowling at him.

He shook his head. "Is that why you asked me about my beliefs after that? Caught you off guard enough that you just _had_ to ask _that_ question? You're not religious yourself, are ya?"

"We stopped going to church as a kid," Bad mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Too many people calling us names for having two sides…"

Nodding, Benny took hold of Bad's arm and led him forward. "I don't blame you. I mean, I know that not _everyone_ is like that… So, it sucks you got the ones who _were_."

"It's fine," Good shrugged, taking his hands out of his pockets. "We don't need to talk about this."

"Great, because I have something to show you." Benny stopped at a door marked only as "entrance by appointment only". He went through the key ring until he picked out the right one, and swiftly unlocked the door.

"Close your eyes," he told Good.

Good smiled and did so and let Benny take him by the hand into the room. He could see lights flicker to life on the other side of his eyelids. Once Benny said it was alright, he peeked one eye open before they both went wide, staring at the room around them as it stretched into infinity on all sides with thousands of points of light surrounding them.

"What kind of space museum would it be without its own mini galaxy?" Benny laughed. "Welcome to the infinity room, dude."

Bad turned about and then slowly reached out, stepping forward to let his hand connect with a mirror wall. "My gosh…" he breathed out in awe. He looked at Benny in the reflection and then whipped around to face him. "What are you _doing_?"

Benny disconnected his helmet and tossed it into Bad's hands. "Well, man, I felt really bad about getting your hopes up like that by accidentally talking about your obsession with food."

Good frowned. "Benny…"

"I'm not a god, obviously," Benny continued, lowering his oxygen tanks to the ground. "I don't know anyone who actually is, as you can guess. I told you _my_ thoughts on it already."

Bad shook his head. "Benny, that's not what…" He couldn't bring himself to continue as he watched Benny unhook the lower half of his suit and gulped as it fell to the ground, exposing the long underwear the spaceman wore underneath.

"But you were close enough, so _that's_ why I got freaked out. That you actually came so close to guessing." Benny chuckled nervously. "And I guess I felt bad so I decided to show you…"

"Benny…" Good tried to stop him one last time, the warning falling short as Benny took off the upper part of his suit. He stared, almost trembling, as a mass of galaxies and nebulae unfurled, reflected against the mirrors all around them into forever, almost in the shape of wings. "Oh my gosh…" he whispered. Bad scrunched up his face. "What. The. HECK."

Benny shrugged, smiling nonchalantly, though his eyes betrayed a sudden fear as he spoke. "Um… Space angel?"

Bad shook his head, as if it would make the image disappear, but he looked up again and saw the space-wings still there, still foreboding, still connected to Benny's back. "Benny…" he ground out through clenched teeth. "When I was saying you were god-like, I meant you were _helping me be a better person._ Like people expect God to do."

Benny paled, taking a step back. "N-Not that you actually _thought_ I was a…"

"Afraid not," Good apologized, smiling sheepishly.

"OH MY GOSH." Benny jolted around, rushing to get his suit back on. "Omigosh, omigosh! I just did this for nothing! I'm going to get into so much trouble!"

Good flinched but stepped forward before Benny got his oxygen tanks back on and pulled him into a hug. "Calm down, buddy. It'll be alright…"

"Easy for you to say!" Benny countered, glaring up at him. He sighed and rested his head against Good's chest, relaxing into the hug. "You're not going to tell anyone, right?"

"Not a soul," Good promised. Bad frowned at him. "You're an angel," he said.

"Yeah, apparently," Benny answered. "Well, not an _angel_ angel like people expect- who knows if those really exist… Space angel is more accurate. You saw how awesome my wings are, right?"

"How though?" he asked. "What exactly are you doing here?"

Benny sighed and let go of him. He put on his oxygen tanks and then held out his hand for his helmet. Bad handed it over and he put it on. "Come on," Benny told him, scooping up the key ring from the ground. "Might as well explore the museum while I explain."

Good nodded and followed Benny out of the room, waiting for him to turn off the lights and lock the door before he followed him around to all the different exhibits in the building. He listened closely to the spaceman as they explored.

"Okay, so, basically," Benny told him. "There's quite a few of us, all over the place, and we have different rules for what we individually can and can't do. Like for me, my wings only show if I take off my suit, and otherwise I look as human as you or Emmet or something."

"You _float_ ," Bad pointed out.

"Dude, _all_ the 1980s space guys float," Benny retorted. "There were two at Cloud Cuckoo Land, one in white and one in red and _they_ could float without being space angels."

Good shrugged. "Fair enough… So, you're just pretending to be a 1980s something space guy then?"

"Yeah, basically," he answered. "I was actually supposed to help more in actual space, but I broke my suit so I had to come here instead." He sighed. "I really miss it up there, but if I go into space with a broken suit, anywhere there isn't oxygen, I have to suffocate. It's either no suit or a fully functional one for me."

"The rules are different for each other space angel?" Bad asked.

"Yep! Like the receptionist is one, that 'Kosh' person we mentioned is one, and plenty of others all over the place. They don't all have to wear spacesuits to get around." Benny hummed and grinned. "We basically go around making sure that universe doesn't destroy itself. You know how cosmic phenomenon or people with tools to freeze the universe can get."

Bad frowned. "So, what, is that why you were with Emmet during that incident?"

Benny nodded. "Yeah! I knew I had to build a spaceship at some point, but I didn't know exactly when, but I knew it would be the coolest thing ever and help save the world!"

"Why a spaceship?" Good asked.

"I just _really_ like spaceships, dude." Benny smiled at him. "I mean really, I tried three times before I managed to build it, and you're the one who told me I could the third time and that was great!"

Good smiled back before Bad frowned at him. "Well, if that's what you were supposed to do here to help the world, then what are you supposed to do now?"

Benny stopped short and furrowed his brow. "I dunno. I mean, I wasn't kidding before about not knowing if there's a higher power or not. I like the idea of space being the higher power, but none of us know for sure… Some of us use other people's beliefs as their own, but me… I just wait for a feeling telling me 'you need to do this' and even if I don't know if it's my own intuition or someone telling me to, it normally steers me right, even if I don't know exactly where or when I'm supposed to do the thing."

"But…?" Good prompted.

"But I haven't had anything like that since the spaceship thing," Benny shrugged. "As far as I know, I should just stay here and hang out at my own fancy until I get an idea what to do next. The 'feeling' might even tell me to change my rules next time."

Good nodded. "Where did you come originally? How old are you?"

"Uh…" Benny counted his responses on his fingers. "One, space. Duh. Two, I have no idea. At least thirty."

"Thirty what?" Bad asked.

"Years, dude," Benny shrugged. "Somewhere between thirty and… and some number larger than thirty. I really have no clue."

They decided not to press on and followed Benny around as the spaceman showed them the "coolest things in the museum." Eventually, Benny paused to look up at the clock and sighed.

"Ten minutes until the museum opens to the public," he announced. "But it's a Sunday, so there shouldn't be too many people here today… Unless you needed to get going?"

Good shook his head. "No, I'm free for now."

"Great." Benny grinned and took a hold of his hand. "There's one last thing I want to show you here."

Good nodded and followed after Benny. Bad frowned as they passed a sign that read "off-limits" but continued to let Benny lead him into the next room.


	3. Chapter 3

He glanced warily at the shadows cast upon the room from the various objects as sun filtered in through dusty windows. The other wondered just why the museum would let this room go into such neglect, and he wondered just what the spaceman wanted to show them in there. Benny's hand squeezed tighter around theirs, as if sensing their apprehension, a small attempt at comfort against the sudden chill down his back.

Benny smiled at him, but held a finger over his closed lips as a signal to stay silent. Bad nodded, keeping his lips pursed and forehead creased as they traveled down the glass cases, too dark and dusty to see the contents. Good took his turn to try and peer into the cases, his glasses better suited for the dark room, but Benny tugged him forward and diverted his attention.

Finally, Benny stopped them in front of a smaller, cubed case resting on a small column. The case sat off to the left side of the room, against the back wall, something they didn't notice earlier as they travelled the room. Benny licked his bottom lip, almost as if he were nervous, and the additional squeeze against Good's hand showed that he just may be.

Benny lifted a trembling hand, reaching for the lid of the case, and began to move it until it rested on its hinges propped against the wall. He motioned for Good to stay where he was and then peek over the edge of the glass into the case.

Bad narrowed his eyes and turned around at a sudden woosh, keeping his hand tight against Benny's. Benny turned towards him, sending him a look of concern.

**"Beniamine."**

The spaceman gasped and quickly slammed the lid of the case shut. He moved closer to Bad, looking to the shadows for the source of the voice.

A figured stepped out of the darkness, though the action hardly mattered for the sake of identifying them with their entire body cloaked and with a cloth wrapped around their head, showing only their staring eyes. They soon spoke again in that same voice, booming but hollow, as if it were merely imagined instead of reality. **"Non es Pandora geminorum."**

Benny flinched, closing one eye and then switching between which eye stayed open. "Uh… Shoot… Uh, non… eram…?"

**"Lentus es."** The person bent over slightly and glared. **"Sicut semper."**

Frowning, Benny placed his free hand in a fist on his hip. "Hey man, at least I don't hide everything I'm saying in a dead language that I'm not entirely sure you're even speaking properly."

**"Discede."** From the harsh way the person said it, it was obviously an order. **"Nunc. In culpa es."**

"I'm what?" Benny furrowed his brow and then gasped. "I'm in trouble? Why am I in trouble?"

The person glared again, and Benny dropped his shoulders and sighed. He looked at Bad apologetically and began to lead him out of the room once more. As soon as they made it back to the main floor, Benny let go of his hand and groaned.

"Sorry 'bout that," he said with a sheepish smile. "Apparently I'm actually _not_ allowed to show you _that_ just yet."

"Who…?" Bad looked over his shoulder into the strange room. "What…?"

"That was Kosh," Benny answered. He chuckled nervously. "Which would make more sense to you if you understood the reference. Uh, that's the name of a character from a sci-fi show that's a lot like _our_ Kosh. And that…" He pointed into the room. "Is so full of secrets that I don't know how anyone here can live with themselves."

Good blinked, his mouth slightly agape, until he finally built up to courage to say anything. "Would you like to get coffee with me again?"

"Oh, totally," Benny laughed. "Right now? I think I need it."

"I think I do too," Good groaned. Bad sighed. "C'mon, we can go back to my place. It'll be cheaper than going to a coffee shop again."

"Sure thing," the spaceman nodded.

They hurried out of the museum, slowing down at the admissions desk for Benny to send a look to the receptionist who smiled sympathetically in return. Bad glanced at her nameplate as they passed by, reading the flourished "Jennifer Fellow" and wondering just what Miss Fellow's rules as an angel were before Benny tugged him out through the glass doors.

They spent the following ride in silence, none of them willing to speak and each of them trying to make as little sound as possible like a competition where the first to lose would suffer the consequences of utmost embarrassment. The short walk into their home was just as silent and it wasn't until they had made it into the kitchen that Bad decided to take the loss and glanced at Benny.

"I don't have decaf," he admitted, hindsight always clearer than his actual vision.

Benny made a fist and pounded it into his opposite hand. "I'll take the caffeine."

He nodded and got to work setting up the coffee pot. A few minutes later, they sat across from each other at the kitchen table, each of them with a steaming mug of coffee. Bad held his by the handle while Benny gripped his firmly around the circumference of the mug, the insulated gloves granting the solace of not being burnt. Bad had set out sugar and creamer for Benny to use, though to his surprise the spaceman drank his black, just as he did. Good confidently took a sip, soon after pulling a face at the bitter liquid and staring at the sugar and creamer in longing.

"I'm not adding anything to it," Bad mumbled to the other. "If you really want coffee for once, then get your own."

"I thought Good didn't drink coffee," Benny giggled.

"I don't," Good bemoaned, almost glaring at the mug in his hand as if it were the cause of all troubles. Bad rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses and took another sip, the familiar taste and warmth a friendly welcome back to the path he strayed from the last few days. Now that Benny's secret was out, Bad could find comfort in his drink again.

Benny shook his head, smiling his amusement before he drank more of his own coffee. As he lowered the mug, he nodded towards the counter behind Bad. "And what about the croissants? Don't want any of those?"

"No," Good sighed, furrowing his brow at the thought. Now that Benny's secret was out, Good felt strange about his typical overindulgence, the idea of gluttony in front of an angel weighing down on his conscience.

"Look, I won't mind," Benny frowned at him. "You at least shouldn't let them go to waste. It's been a few days since you got them."

"Would you like one?" Good asked, eyes lighting up in wonder. He smiled at Benny's nod and quickly set down the mug to fetch plates for their croissants. He set the full platter of leftovers out in the middle of the table, alongside the sugar and creamer and quickly pulled a croissant toward him, bypassing the plate and bringing it straight to his waiting mouth. He shuddered in delight, the days that past somehow not diminishing the decadent flavors of his favorite luxury.

Benny's shoulder shook from silent laughter, his eyes shutting to support his wide grin, and then he stood up and set his mug on the table. "Sorry for stripping in your kitchen, dude," he gave as his only warning before repeating his process from before, first removing the helmet, then the oxygen tanks, and finally the rest of the suit, "but I can't really get the butter grease on the suit."

Bad watched intently as the suit pieces came off and the wings unfurled from the spaceman's back, the stars glowing just as brightly, between dark space and nebulae, underneath his kitchen lights as they did in the infinity room. The majesty stayed just as evident the second time, or perhaps even more so now that they knew to expect it instead of the accidental surprise. Benny grinned at him, charming and knowing, and then sat again to take a croissant of his own.

"Y'know, I haven't really told anyone about this in, like, ever?" Benny asked him between bites. He washed down the croissant with the last of his coffee and laughed. "Some of the other space angels told people before, and they told me it's usually after they said something weird about some ridiculous inside joke people have."

"Like coffee and croissants," Good offered.

Benny nodded. "Totally. I dunno, man. I don't really get why I knew to say that. It's not like I can read minds. That's not one of my rules."

"Could just be a coincidence," Bad suggested. "Or fate," Good countered.

"Or maybe it's fate that it's a coincidence," Benny laughed. "Or a coincidence that it's fate."

"How would that even work?" Bad frowned at him. "It being a coincidence that it's fate."

"I dunno, but that'd be something, right?" Benny asked, placing his chin in his palms as he smiled at him. "But now you know about me, so we're both going to have to face any consequences that might pop up."

"Kosh said you were in trouble?" Good asked before taking another bite of his croissant.

Benny sighed and nodded. "Yeah. I didn't want to admit he was right to his face- he's such a jerk about it- but you're not really supposed to know. The space angels who told people before… Well, I haven't heard from them in a while, so I don't know what may have happened to them or the people they told…"

"That…" Good trailed off and Bad quickly took over. "I don't like how foreboding that sounds," Bad grumbled. "It's not like it's my fault you misinterpreted what I said."

"I know," Benny frowned in return. "I hope whatever happens is easy on you. You've had enough to deal with lately."

Bad lifted his mug to his lips and flattened his brow as he watched Benny. "Spaceman, let me get this across right now. I do _not_ want to end up on some weird adventure because of this. _Especially_ if it ends up being some existential soul-searching thing." He washed down the confession with his divinity and hoped for the best.

"What makes you think _that_ would happen?" Benny countered, scrunching his face. "Dude, do you really think your life is some dramatic story or something?"

"Can you blame me?" Good asked, frowning pathetically. "After what's happened lately? I don't want to… I don't want to have to be hurt again. Not for something like this."

Benny choked on his croissant suddenly, and Bad was quick on his feet while Benny hacked and wheezed. "I'm fine!" he insisted, waving Good away when he tried to come close. "I'm fine, don't worry!"

"Water?" Good asked him. He hurried for a glass as soon as Benny nodded and set it on the table in front of him.

Benny gulped it down quickly and followed it with deep breaths before slumping into the back of the chair, his wings morphing around it like gel. "Sorry," he mumbled before covering his face with his hands.

"What for?" Good asked. He reached out and hesitated but then set his hand on Benny's shoulder. "You don't have to apologize for anything."

Benny lowered his hands and looked the one on his shoulder. He giggled a bit and stood up and hugged Good. Bad scowled and tried to push him off, but stopped short when Benny's wings curved around them, covering them in blackness and stars.

"Benny…" he breathed out. Good wrapped his arms around Benny's waist and looked around in wonder. "What are you doing…?" he asked.

"No, really," Benny laughed. "I'm really sorry. You're in deep now, dude, and I don't know what's going to happen, but it's _probably_ going to be something you don't like."

Bad scowled at him. "Don't play games with me, Benny. I don't want to be dragged into something. Especially if we hardly know each other."

Benny nodded. "It's not like I only had a serious conversation with you, like, once before and I suddenly took you into a space museum and stripped and revealed some deep, dark secret of mine that I didn't actually need to because I misinterpreted your actions." He uncurled his wings and smirked as the kitchen light illuminated their world once more. "Then again, Good hugged me back and _you_ still haven't let go."

Bad pulled his arms away and stepped back. Benny wiped his hands on a napkin and began to put his suit back on. Bad watched him closely, watched as the wings disappeared and Benny turned back from an angel into a 1980s something space guy.

"Do you have _any_ idea what you're dragging me into, at least?" he asked, dropping his shoulders in defeat.

"I'll let you know if I figure that out, dude," Benny answered as he pulled on his helmet. "But Kosh says I'm in trouble, and that's bound to include you as well… But I _am_ a space angel. So who knows what else may happen, y'know?"

Good sighed and shook his head, but he smiled fondly at Benny and nodded. "I'll just have to trust you for now, won't I?"

Benny nodded. "Yeah, maybe. You don't need to, though. Like you said, we hardly know each other."

"Are you leaving?" Good asked next. At Benny's nod, he continued, "Do you need a ride anywhere?"

"If you don't mind, I could use a lift back to my place," Benny shrugged.

Bad nodded and grabbed his keys. "Let's go."


	4. Chapter 4

He only blinked once before the world turned dark. He could still see, still move, but he could comprehend no light and he felt sluggish. The other stood with him, gripping his hand tightly and trying to whisper something that he just couldn't hear. He frowned, a sense of dread shooting across his nerves, and he tried to fight through the empty space holding him from turning to see the other. A heavy blanket smothered the other's presence, though it did not fill the sudden void in his mind, an abyss that echoed his own mind.

_"Not again, no!"_

He stood on that edge of the empty hole, trying to find a way around it, trying to go into it, trying anything he could, but the other had been erased completely, leaving him alone, frantic…

He fell forward, onto his face, and groaned as he pushed himself off of the glowing floor. He grunted as he pushed himself up, and looked around, knitting his brow at all of the things building around him, manifestations of any original thought he or the other had in their life.

_"Bad?"_

He whipped around and saw the other and dove in to hug him.

The other smiled and returned the hug, rubbing his back comfortingly. _"Bad, what's going on? I was having a nice dream about puppies and coconut donuts and suddenly I'm here with you."_

 _"At least_ you _were having a good dream,"_ he grumbled. _"I was having a nightmare."_ He let go and looked around again. _"Where are we?"_

**"In mente vestrum."**

They let go of each other and turned at the same time. He scowled at the figure while the other furrowed his brow and gave a small, tight frown.

 _"Kosh, was it?"_ the other asked. _"I'm afraid we don't speak…"_

He hummed, narrowing his eyes. _"What even is that? Latin?"_

 **"Ita vero."** Kosh bowed slightly, like a nod.

He and the other shared a look. The other rolled his eyes and looked at Kosh again.

 _"I'm sorry, but we can't have a conversation with you if we don't understand you,"_ the other told him, smiling in apology.

 _"He's not actually sorry,"_ he revealed, pulling his mouth to the side in an annoyed frown.

The other nodded. _"Afraid not."_

 **"Non intellegite."** Kosh leaned forward, staring at them through narrowed eyes. **"Solum observate."**

 _"Obs-er-way-tay…"_ the other pronounced slowly.

 _"Observate,"_ he answered. _"Observe?"_

Kosh bowed again and said nothing more.

 _"Observe what?"_ he demanded.

**"Your eventual demise."**

Both he and the other jumped back and closer together at that, both of them glaring at Kosh. The other slipped his hand into his and held tight.

 _"We need to go,"_ the other whispered. _"I don't trust him."_

 _"Go where?"_ he countered. _"We have no way out."_

 **"You must stay away from Ben Chu,"** Kosh told them. **"Or he will bring your demise."**

 _"I have an idea,"_ the other whispered.

 _"Yeah?"_ he asked.

 _"Well…"_ Before the other said anything, the landscape began to reshape around them.

 **"Absistite,"** Kosh ordered, moving forward almost like a threat.

A wall built up between them and Kosh, blocking him out.

He sighed and shook his head. _"We have to be dreaming…"_

The other nodded. _"I suppose so. What do we do now, then?"_

_"My idea is that we wake up…"_

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP_

His eyes shot open and he stared up at the ceiling, scowling. His skin felt sticky with sweat, and his blanket curled around his right leg with most of it hanging off the bed. His pillow seemed to have disappeared between the side of his bed and the nightstand, and he just lay there, still but scowling, trying to will himself to move.

_BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP_

The other yawned and sat up and reached across the nightstand, pressing down in a few places until he finally hit the alarm clock and turned it off. Good grabbed his glasses next and stared at the time.

10:56 AM

"How long were we asleep?" he groaned before stretching.

Bad shook his head and put on his shades. "Good, do you… remember that dream at all?"

Good cringed. "I was hoping at least one of us didn't remember it… We don't share dreams often…"

"It was strangely clear for a dream…" he mused. He curled and released his fingers a few times before deciding to stand. "We need a shower. I feel gross."

Not long later, they sat at their kitchen table, eating breakfast silently why they both mused separately.

"What if it wasn't a dream," Good asked quietly.

Bad frowned. "How was that _not_ a dream?"

"Benny said Kosh is an angel too," Good reminded. "He might have done something to talk with us like that."

"To threaten us to stay away from Benny?" Bad asked. "What exactly was _that_ about?"

Good shook his head. "We're not going to listen, are we?"

Bad shrugged. "It's not like we're the one who seeks him out. But that doesn't mean we're going to turn him away if he comes to us, right?"

Good nodded. "Right."

The silence dragged on after that, with the two of them taking turns to stare at the remainder of their breakfast.

"We're going to avoid everyone again today, aren't we?" Bad asked.

Good smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "I suppose we haven't… changed for the better _just_ yet…"

"So much for calling our parents today," Bad mumbled as he picked up his coffee mug. He downed the last of his drink and groaned. "What _are_ we going to do, then? We already woke up much later than usual… What exactly is going on?"

Good shook his head and slowly ate through the last of his croissants. He just swallowed the last bite when the chime of the doorbell reached his ears. "Oh… Bad, did you want to…?"

Bad sighed and trudged his way to the door, half with the hopes that the time he took could scare the person off. No such luck as he reached the door and looked through to find a woman on the other side. He racked his brain to figure out just why she looked familiar, and when it hit him, he slowly opened the door just a few inches and peeked out. "Miss Fellow?" he asked.

The woman jumped slightly but nodded. She smiled sheepishly. "Mr. Copper. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised you were observant enough to see my nameplate yesterday?"

He gave a fraction of a nod before frowning at her. "What do you want?"

"Never ask that question," she responded right away. She flinched. "Oh, sorry, sci-fi humor. It makes more sense if you've seen the show…"

"Just answer the question," Bad grunted.

"Right. I wanted to check up on you." She sighed. "I've seen the 'McCoy's Directive' stunt Benny's pulled a few times before, and I know that it can be a bit much for the people who see it…"

"You mean compared to watching Master Builders build working motorcycles or submarines out of garbage," he countered.

She blinked and slowly nodded. "I… suppose you _have_ seen some pretty weird things… May I come in?"

 _"Well?"_ he asked the other.

 _"Might as well,"_ Good answered. _"Maybe she could tell us about what happened with Kosh…"_

Bad sighed and pushed the door open fully. "Fine. But I have some things to ask you."

She nodded. "Sure thing. And you can call me Jenny, if you want."

He led her into the kitchen and cleared off the table while she sat down, the second space angel to sit in _that_ chair in just as many days. "Would you like anything?" Good asked from over his shoulder. "Coffee? Water? Croissants?"

Jenny smiled and shook her head. "No, thank you. So, you haven't told anyone, right?"

"Course not," Bad answered. "Besides, who would even believe me?"

"It's a standard question," Jenny sighed. "Damage control and all of that. I can't really stop Ben from doing what he wants, but that doesn't mean he was supposed to tell you anything, or even show you anything. And you didn't see what he wanted to show you in _that_ room, right?"

Good shook his head and sat down. "No, he motioned for me to wait, and then I got distracted when your Kosh friend showed up." Bad frowned and leaned forward. "Speaking of, any reason why he seemed to show up in my mind last night and told me that Benny will, and I quote, 'bring my demise' if I stay near him?"

"Oh…" Jenny's eyes darted around the room while she sucked in a sharp breath, almost like a hiss. "I think you mean paraphrase."

"Whatever," Bad groaned, pulling back again. He slumped against the back of the chair and grumbled. "I never asked for any of this. But I want to know what's going on…" He sat straight again and narrowed his eyes at the woman. "Where is Benny, anyway?"

"Ben's… busy," Jenny answered, choosing her words carefully.

"Busy with _what_?" he demanded.

She sighed and shook her head. "Alright, I didn't want to admit it, but… We asked him to build as many model spaceships as he can for the next hour or so and said we'd put them on display in the space museum. That way he would be distracted and not show up here."

"You said 'we' asked him?" Good asked, frowning at her.

"The other angels and I…" Jenny flinched. "Not Kosh. He was missing from that meeting, and I see now why, if he was talking with you in your mind… Higher angels are like that. They have more presence and command."

Good hummed a short note and then shook his head. "Miss Fellow, I'm afraid I don't understand _why_ it's so bad that Benny told me his secret. He said that each of you have different rules to follow and that not all of even believe in a higher power, so it's not like he has someone to report to… Why is it a problem?"

"I noticed you never asked about the thing Benny wanted to show you?" Jenny asked.

Bad scowled. "Ma'am, I frankly don't care about that. Now answer my question."

"Mr. Copper…" Jenny started, watching him closely as she spoke. "We may have different rules, but there are certain things all of us are supposed to do. One of those things is to… Well, to _silence_ those who find out about us."

"Silence," Bad repeated, quickly rising to his feet.

Jenny put up her hands in defense. "No, calm down, that's not why I'm here. For one thing, silencing can mean different things. Killing is just one extreme, and there's also inducing amnesia or literal muting or anything else that works. It varies depending on the person. This is supposed to be if the reveal was _accidental_ or even _forced_. You… He showed you willingly. And Ben got the big assignment, helping to save the universe, as you know. We're not sure if there's some reason, something about you or what you may do, that needed Ben to show you or if Ben was just being stupid for once."

He stared at her but then sank down into his seat again. "And… And you didn't ask him directly?"

"He could easily lie so we wouldn't have to silence you," Jenny answered. "Besides that, we don't always know what instructions we get and it's hard to explain them when we do. If Kosh already talked to you and told you _that_ , then he must be anticipating something bad…"

Good frowned. "He didn't exactly say _not_ to keep seeing Benny. He just said that it would bring my demise if I do." Bad scowled. "He also said that I need to observe it, my demise…" He shook his head. "I'm starting to hate that word. But he said it as if I'm supposed to see it happen."

Jenny nodded. "Alright… What did Ben tell you, after you left? Anything important?"

"Only that he's dragging me into something and will let me know just what when he figures it out," Good sighed.

"So there probably is something he needs you for," Jenny answered. "Even if he doesn't know what yet… Alright, we'll see how it goes and where to go from there… Just make sure not to tell anyone, alright?"

"Why would I?" Bad mumbled, standing up. "If you're done, I'll see you out?"

Jenny nodded. "Yes, thank you, that's all I needed."

"One last thing?" Good asked, smiling at her. "How did you know my name and find my home?"

"Space angel magic?" Jenny offered, smiling sheepishly.

Bad scowled at her. "Ma'am, kindly leave if you're not going to tell me the truth."

"Sorry," she answered, but walked back to the front door and stepped out.

Good waved her off, smiling and telling her good-bye, and Bad slammed the door the moment she was out of sight.

"Now what?" Bad demanded. "We should call Benny, but we don't know his number."

Good furrowed his brow. "He said Mummy and Daddy have been talking to him and the others. Perhaps they would know…"

Bad sighed and trudged towards the nearest phone. "Looks like we're calling our parents after all."


	5. Chapter 5

The guilt of explaining to his parents that he only called them to find Benny's number weighed on his mind as he dialed the phone again, but the other assured him that they'd call again for an actual conversation soon. All the same, he sighed, bowing his head and letting his eyes flutter shut as he listened to the phone ringing on the other end and hoping to whatever higher power, space or not, that Benny would pick up.

"Hi, this is Benny," his voice rang out a moment later, rushing his words in a breathless laughter. "I can't talk right now, I just finished 552 model spaceships and want to try and reach an even 600 before the hour is up, so if you could call back-."

"Benny," Bad interrupted. "It's me."

"Oh, hey…" He could hear Benny shuffle, and his speech slowed to an understandable pace. "I didn't realize you had my number…"

"I didn't," he admitted, sighing. "Look, I'll make it short. Miss Fellow just stopped by my place."

"Oh, I _thought_ the sudden order for model spaceships was suspicious."

"Also, Kosh was in my mind last night." He waited for a response, but instead the silence lingered on, eating at his nerves and leaving him to tighten his grip on the phone. Good furrowed his brow and glanced at the time. Just past noon.  "Benny…?"

"I'll be right there," Benny growled, each word articulated with dripping venom.

Good turned his head to stare at the phone in disbelief, but soon winced as the shrill dial tone beeped its grievances at him. Bad slammed the phone back onto the receiver and grumbled nonsense as he stormed over to the coffee pot and poured out another mug of his precious drink.

He drank his way through the rest of the pot like an addict with a pack of cigarettes, and Good said nothing to the low growl and constant drumming of fingers Bad seemed content to use to replace the coffee. He jumped straight to his feet as the doorbell rang and shouted out "it's open" before dropping back into his chair, dragging his fingers under his shades and into his hair with his palms resting on his subtly twitching eyes.

He heard the door open and shut, but he didn't hear any footsteps to match the quiet breathing.

"Wow, dude, you do _not_ look good," Benny told him from across the table.

"I'm not good, I'm bad," he mumbled.

"Well… Uh… _Yeah_ ," Benny answered.

"No, _literally_ ," he growled, peering up at him with squinted eyes as his sunglasses stayed stuck just above his forehead. "I drank an entire pot of coffee before you showed up."

"Dude, c'mon," Benny frowned. "I know you have that joke, but there's such a thing as excess… How's Good?"

Good shook his head and then covered his mouth and cringed. He swallowed and pulled a disgusted look. "I- Ergh- I don't do well with caffeine…"

"Gross, man," Benny choked in response. "You gonna ralph?"

Without another word, Good was at the kitchen sink, somehow with his glasses in his hands and with the faucet on, mentally ticking this off as another of the few times Bad was the one to overindulge from stress. By the time he was done, slumped against the edge of the sink and breathing heavily, Bad cursed vehemently in the back of his mind and he just slipped his glasses back on and propped himself to grab a cup. He felt something bump against his arm and looked up to see Benny smiling apologetically, a cup in hand, and he forced a small smile for merely a second as he took the cup, and he then filled it with water before finally shutting off the faucet. He rinsed his mouth and spat it out and then swallowed as much water as he could in one gulp.

He rinsed the sink one last time and set the cup down before slowly turning towards Benny. "Sorry…" he mumbled, his fingers fidgeting at his sides as he stared as the space beneath Benny's floating stature. "Sorry," he mumbled again as Benny took him by the hand. He mumbled the word a few more times as the spaceman took him out to the couch and helped him sit down before disappearing into the hallway, and he said it again when Benny somehow returned with a blanket that he draped over him.

"So." Benny sat in the air next to him, one legged propped up on the opposite knee and his hands folded into his lap. "Kosh. What did the jerkface tell you?"

Bad pulled the blanket tighter around him and groaned. "Do we have to talk about this?"

Benny hummed and then nodded. "Yeah, it's kind of important. I mean, really, Kosh thinks he's so _great_ just because he's a higher ranking angel, and he thinks he knows what's best and it's _annoying_. Like, oh my gosh, if he _threatened_ you just because I told you about us…"

"Calm down," Bad grunted. "I just got sick once. I don't want to do it again."

"Right, stress, okay," Benny sighed.

They lapsed into silence again, with Benny glancing around the room while Bad let his eyes close and counted his breaths until he felt better. After twenty, Good looked up at Benny.

"He said…" Good hesitated, but then shook his head and continued. "He said I'm supposed to observe my 'demise'."

"He specifically said demise?" Benny asked.

Good nodded. "And he said that being near you will cause it."

Benny shook his head. "He's trying to scare you. Don't listen to him. Did you… Uh… Do anything to him while in your mind?"

"M-Maybe…?" Good furrowed his brow. "I built a wall to block him out, I suppose?"

"Oh, good job," Benny grinned. "That'll at least show he's not welcome. Sorry about all of this, man. I knew that they'd be jerks about it, but I didn't think they'd do stuff like _this_."

Bad sighed and shook his head. "Miss Fellow mentioned something about potentially silencing me?"

"That's not going to happen," Benny assured him. "They'd have to go through me first. I'm not losing you like that. That would really suck."

"Uh-huh…" Bad furrowed his brow. "And just why do you care so much?"

"What?" Benny frowned at him. "Dude."

"No, really." Bad sat up, but held on tight to the blanket. "You've gone from being excited to tell me, to being aghast that you did when you didn't need to, to being defensive now that others are telling you that you shouldn't have done that. What is your angle?"

"Reflex," Benny frowned in response.

"What?" Bad growled. "Benny…"

"Reflex angles." Benny held up one hand and formed an L with his fingers and thumb. "Instead of measuring the inside of the angle…" He motioned from his thumb to his fingers. "As in right, acute, obtuse… You instead measure the outside of the angle."  He motioned from his knuckles, behind his wrist, and to the back of his thumb. "So it's an angle equaling more than 180 degrees."

Bad wrinkled his nose and stared at him, pulling an incredulous frown at that grin Benny sent his way before continuing.

"You, you and Good." Benny formed a straight line with his free hand and held it in the middle of the L made with his other hand. "You two are complementary angles. Two 45 degree acute angles making up a right angle. I'm the reflex angle around you. And so, your right angle plus my reflex angle makes a conjugate angle, equaling 360 degrees." He paused for a moment and then chuckled. "But that's just for a two-dimensional world. Since this is three dimensional, we also have to think about the z-axis…"

"Benny!" Bad groaned.

"No, no, seriously, there's a point to this," Benny assured him. He waited for Good to motion for him to continue, and he then took a deep breath. "See, in a two-dimensional world, everything would be flat. So, looking at it flatly, without complexity, you two are an equal pair, something right, and as a reflex for what I did, I joined you guys, or conjugated with you. But things are more complex than that, since everything is three-dimensional… You know what a parallax is?"

"No," Good answered, shaking his head.

"Alright, cool." Benny looked around and then grabbed a nearby pen and held it up, at a tilt. "Alright, so, you're sitting there, right? And you see where this pen is in relation to you, and you can see which way it's tilted. But with me, I'm in a different spot, so I see it at a different angle." He let go of the pen and left it floating in the air and then leaned over to wrap an arm over Good's shoulder while motioning up towards the roof. "Now, imagine that on a larger scale. On an interstellar scale.

"You pick any star in the sky, alright? You record where it is in the night sky. Then you wait until the Earth is on the opposite side of the sun and look at that star again, in the same exact place you were before. You're in a different place in space, so with the parallax, the star looks like it moved too. But then you can measure where it is in the sky now, and using triangulation, you can find out the approximate distance that star is away from you. The smaller the parallax, the less it moved, the farther it is away."

Benny smiled at Good. "So, that's you. Your two views are what forms a parallax. As for me… I'm a zenith angle." He paused and pointed straight up. "The zenith is the point directly overhead. So, the zenith angle is the measurement between the zenith and a point of interest. Like, for the sun, the solar zenith angle becomes smaller the closer it is to midday, the closer the sun is to being directly overhead. I'm a zenith angle because over time, the zenith of you knowing I'm a space angel compared to me wanting you to as a point of interest is changing and showing just where my position on this is now."

Bad frowned at him. "And where would that be?"

Benny winked. "The zenith angle is getting smaller. What can you two say about your parallax?"

"From how we viewed you before and how we view you now?" Good asked. Bad shook his head. "There's been a large change…" he admitted softly.

Nodding, Benny gently slipped his hand into theirs. "So that's it, then. My position is not to care that you know about me, and you and I are closer together."

"Alright, fine," Bad sighed. "But did you _have_ to make it so complicated to admit that?"

"Dude, c'mon!" Benny whined. "I hardly ever get to talk about math and science like that, give me a break! I mean, it's not _all_ space angel magic or whatever. I _do_ know physics and technology and a lot of other stuff, y'know?"

Good chuckled and reclined against the pillow and armrest again, still holding onto Benny's hand. "Alright then, dear…" Bad scowled and let go of Benny's hand to cross his arms over his chest. "But I still don't want you dragging me on any weird adventure because of any of this. What happened already is bad enough."

"I know," Benny sighed. "But I _told_ you that something would happen. Will probably still happen."

He groaned and shook his head. "Do you know what will happen yet? Did you get any instructions or anything?"

"Well…" Benny cringed suddenly and rubbed the back of his helmet in place of his neck. "I didn't want to say anything, but…"

"But…?" Good asked.

"But I really shouldn't tell you," Benny grinned in apology. "I don't even know _how_ to tell you. But- Uh… You should probably call your parents sometime before Wednesday."

Bad narrowed his eyes. "Why…?"

"Because I can't guarantee just what will happen once it's Wednesday," Benny winced. "So if there's anything you want to do, do it before then. Just in case."

Good frowned, staring at his knees, and he then looked up at Benny again. "How did you get here?"

"I, uh…" Benny chuckled. "I took a spaceship. A small one. It fits in your driveway."

"Will you stay?" Good asked. "For the next few days?"

Benny watched him closely, trailing his eyes over his face while he pursed his own lips in thought. Slowly, he nodded and began to smile again. "Sure."

Bad frowned at him. "Great. Now get me the phone on the table over there. I have to call my parents. And would you please set that pen on an actual _table_ instead of leaving it floating?"


	6. Chapter 6

They spent their entire Tuesday in the countryside, visiting their parents, much to the elderly couple's delight and relief. Benny hung out in the background as Good ran up to hug both Ma and Pa, and he grinned when Ma showered both Good and Bad with motherly kisses on their forehead and cheeks.

When Ma finally finished with her son, she turned towards Benny and smiled at him, tears forming in her eyes as she told him, "Bless you, Benny. You're an angel."

Bad choked and turned his head away while Benny kept his composure and just nodded at her with a quick "Anytime" before excusing himself and saying he'd stop by for "Danny" later.

Benny returned just before sunset, and Pa asked where he had gone off to given how small the town was. Benny grinned at him and said "Taking care of angel business."

Pa laughed and said nothing on it, but clapped his hand onto his son's shoulder before he walked out the door and told him to stop by more often. Good could only nod, his mouth full of sweet pastries and his arms full food his mother insisted he bring home.

Benny helped Good load their car and they drove together back towards the city.

"Hey, dude, one last thing," Benny whispered as he stared towards the sky. "We have time, so can you pull over into a field somewhere?"

Bad lifted his brow but said nothing as he slowed and turned the wheel until they were some distance into an empty field. Benny stepped out of the car and Bad followed him out. Benny pointed somewhere towards the Northeast, upwards at the night sky.

"See that star?" he asked.

"Which star?" Bad frowned. "There's thousands of them."

"Exactly," Benny nodded. "You can't see this in the city, but here… Just standing here, with clear, dark skies, you can see thousands of stars. In this galaxy alone, there are hundreds of _billions_. Multiple that by another hundred billion, and that's still not close to how many stars there are in total. How many of those stars do you think are like the sun and have planets with other life forms on them?"

Good shook his head. "I'm not sure."

Benny nodded. "I like what you told me the other day. That space might be the higher power. I'm not sure if I believe that exactly just yet, but I know that I will always believe in space. Because, if you think about it… Everything comes from space in one way or another. Even I came from space… And all those stars, planets, other life… I just wanted to say this since we happen to have a good view of the stars for once. Don't mind me."

Bad looked away from the sky and over the top of the car to Benny, watching as the spaceman kept his eyes focused on the world above him. "What was it like for you, coming from space?"

Benny shook his head and chuckled. "It's weird. I don't remember exactly how it started for me. I just woke up in space one day, and I knew what I was, where I should to go, what I should to do… And eventually, that landed me here, and I got to meet my friends and… and you…"

Good hummed and leaned over his car. "Benny… If there are an unfathomable amount of stars in the sky… And life around some number of them… What about the stars in your wings?"

Benny finally tore his eyes from the sky and looked over at Good. "Oh, well… You know what it's like when you have a hole in your shirt and you can see your skin through it, and by moving your shirt you can change the shape of the hole and what you see through it? Imagine that, but with space being on the other side of the hole made by my wings. Except, unlike a normal hole, you can't reach through it and end up on the other side. It really is just empty space that visually takes up what you see."

"Um…" Good furrowed his brow. "Okay…?"

Sighing, he shook his head and then tried again. "Like, if you stuck your head in it _right now_ , all you'd see is whatever you see around us already. It's pretty much just an illusion. We can leave it at that, if that's easier for you to comprehend."

Bad lifted his brow and glanced at him from over his shades. "Has someone actually _done_ that before? Stick their head in your wings?"

"You'd be surprised what the other angels get up to," Benny laughed. "Now, really. We should get back to your place if you want to get some sleep before whatever may or may not happen on Wednesday."

"The calm before the storm?" Good asked as he lowered himself back into the driver's seat.

"The event horizon before the black hole," Benny answered as he buckled up again. "Just, hopefully not as destructive and, y'know, leading to time distortion and inevitable death."

"What?" Bad demanded, turning to glare at Benny as he started the car again.

"Nothing," Benny insisted. "It was a lame choice of words, that's all. Now, do you want to get some sleep or not?"

Bad sighed, but wordlessly turned back onto the road and back into the city towards his home.

Tuesday night disappeared as if it never existed, and Bad opened his eyes Wednesday morning to light filtering in through the crack in the door to the hallway outside, the six o'clock morning still dark on the other side of his bedroom window. He put on his glasses, and Good soon followed suit, and they gingerly stepped out of the room to find what chaos Benny had gotten into already.

They found Benny seated at the kitchen table, out of his spacesuit and with his wings folded neatly behind his back. He sipped at a cup of coffee as he filled in the crossword for the day's newspaper. His croissant lay half-eaten on the plate next to his helmet, and the rest of his suit lay folded on the floor next to him with the oxygen tanks on top.

Bad stared for a moment, opening and shutting his mouth before trying to speak again. "This isn't the apocalypse I was expecting."

"Dude, what?" Benny glanced up at him, scrunching his face in confusion. "I never said it'd be an apocalypse. Where did you get _that_ from?"

"To be fair, you never said what it actually _will_ be," Good sighed as he went to get his own breakfast. "And you implied I might not get the chance to see my parents again… Did you buy these croissants today?"

Benny set down his things and then threw his arm over the back of the chair and watched Good. He nodded and grinned. "I got, like, fourteen and saved you a dozen. And I made coffee already. Just, both of you, don't eat or drink too much this time."

Bad rolled his eyes and then poured himself a mug of coffee. He grabbed Good's croissants and carried their breakfast with him to the seat opposite Benny. "Well, fine, if it's _not_ an apocalypse, what _is_ happening? Don't forget, you told me that you'd tell me what you're dragging me into after you figured it out yourself."

Benny grinned and bounced in his chair slightly. "Did you want me to make it, like, a rhyming prophecy thing like Vitruvius would?"

"No!"

"Darn…" Benny pouted, but then sighed and rested his chin in his palm. "Okay, fine, so the truth is, I actually still don't know. I mean, I have a basic idea, but nothing definite…"

Bad furrowed his brow. "But you were going to make a rhyming prophecy…"

"Dude, Vitruvius always makes his up on the spot," Benny argued. "Most of the time they don't even come true, at least that we know of. The one about Emmet was cool though, how that played out. Like, I mean, one time he said something like… Uh…"

He took another bite of his croissant as he thought about it and then snapped his fingers and swallowed. "He said…

" ' _When two in one and one make three,_  
 _From their binds, they'll make them free._  
 _Two sides will be crowned as kings_  
 _At their side, one who sprouted wings._  
 _It starts with the relic that brings peace of mind_  
 _And ends with the disasters that they find._  
 _Together, they can stop the highest, most secret, most destructive scheme._  
 _I know this because I saw it in my dream._ ' "

"That's stupid," Bad grunted.

Benny nodded vigorously. "I know, right? Where does he get these things?"

Good hummed and leaned forward. "Out of curiosity, when did he say this one?"

"Oh, uhhh…" Benny chuckled nervously and shrugged. "You know how Ghost Vitruvius is still around but mostly talks to Emmet but sometimes talks to the rest of us if he needs something like for one of us to clean that bed sheet he's wearing?"

"That's actually a bed sheet?" Bad deadpanned.

"Well, he _may_ have told me this prophecy thing a few days before you and I went out for coffee the first time." Benny shrugged. "B-But it's not like it'll come _true,_ right? What would that even mean?"

"I don't know," Good answered, shaking his head.

They went back to finishing their breakfast while Benny also worked on the crossword puzzle. After they finished, they both went to put on their respective outfits for the day, and Bad came back in his police outfit.

Benny winked and pointed finger pistols at him. "Looking good, Bad. How long has it been since you last wore that?"

"Long enough," Bad mumbled. He straightened his back and pursed his lips. "Alright, Benny, how are we doing this? Am I telling you what we should do, or are you telling me, or are we going to have to deal with things as they're thrown at us this time?"

"The last one, probably," Benny shrugged. "Though I have an idea where to start, at least. Let's take my spaceship and go back to the space museum."

"Okay," Good nodded. "Why?" Bad demanded.

"I want to get the thing," Benny answered, pounding his fist into his other hand in determination. "It's alright if I still can't show it to you, but I don't want them to keep the thing anymore, so I want it back."

Bad groaned but nodded. "Fine, fine, whatever. Let's get going."

Benny laughed and took his hand, leading him outside to his spaceship. It was a small ship, only large enough to sit two people comfortably, and both he and the other wondered if it was actually suitable for space, but they decided not to argue with the person who actually made working spaceships as a hobby.

The trip to the space museum was fast enough to break some sort of law, be it an actual law or a law of physics, but they decided not to argue as they tried to hold down their breakfast before Benny helped them out onto solid ground.

"Not enough warning?" Benny soothed as he rubbed Bad's back.

"You didn't give any warning, you twerp," Bad choked out. He stood up and smacked Benny's hand away. "I'm fine. Alright, how are you doing this?"

"I figured you could be a distraction while I sneak in through the window and steal the thing," Benny offered.

Good shook his head. "I have a better idea."

"By all means," Benny offered, motioning towards the museum.

Good smiled and took Benny by the hand and led him into the museum through the front. Jenny looked up as they entered, hiding her look of fear with a smile as Good smiled back at her.

"Good morning, Miss Fellow," he greeted.

"Mr. Copper. Ben," Jenny replied. "What… What are you doing here?"

"Benny would like to take that thing he was going to show me," Good answered. "I would appreciate it if you let him have it."

"Oh, good," Jenny breathed out in relief. "I thought you two were… Never mind…"

"Were what, Jen?" Benny frowned at her.

"Haven't you heard, Ben?" Jenny asked. "The higher angels are all meeting in some secret location for some secret thing… And considering what's going on between you and Mr. Copper and what Kosh said about you two… I was worried you'd take it out on _me_."

"No, of course not!" Benny gasped in horror. "Why would I do that? So- Uh… This means Kosh is gone, right?"

Jenny nodded. "Yes. For now, anyway."

"Ace!" Benny laughed, pumping his fist. "So can I take the thing, then?"

"I can't stop you," Jenny shrugged. "It is _your_ thing, after all. But if Kosh said not to show Mr. Copper, then you can't show him."

"Man, I don't even know what he said," Benny sighed. "You know how he is with Latin."

"I know," Jenny sighed as well. "Alright, you two get going. And try not to cause too much damage, okay?"

"Right! Thanks, Jen!" Benny hurried over the turnstiles like before, barely giving Bad a chance to follow.

When they made it to the entrance to the room, Benny stopped and motioned for him to stay where he was. "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."

Good nodded and watched Benny disappear past the "off-limits" sign and into the darkness. As soon as he was gone, he allowed himself to frown and faced the rest of the wing. Bad furrow his brow as he looked over the different displays in the room. He stood stock still and with his arms folded behind his back.

_"This is it,"_ the other observed. _"Whatever Benny's getting is just the start of it. We're going to be pulled into something crazy now."_

_"As long as we don't get hurt,"_ he answered. _"I don't know what I'd do if I lost you again."_

_"I can't lose you either,"_ the other reminded. _"I wouldn't be able to handle it as well as you did."_

_"You never told me where you went,"_ he mused. _"What was it like?"_

_"It was a bit like sleeping,"_ the other answered. _"Except I was aware of what was going on. Like dreaming of reality. But I couldn't talk or move, not that I had a voice or a body. It was like floating weightlessly. Like Benny does."_

He hummed softly and glanced over his shoulder at the room behind him. _"No other side? No tunnel of light or visions of angels?"_

_"Goodness, Bad, you act like I had died."_

_"You pretty much did,"_ he mentally sighed. _"Do you know how traumatizing that was for me?"_

The other stayed silent for almost a half a minute before answering. _"I don't want to die again. I don't want_ you _to die either."_

He shut his eyes tight behind his shades and nodded. "We'll be fine. Everything's been calm so far. It'll stay that way, or else."

"Calm before the storm, Bad," Good sighed. "Kosh said that Benny will bring our end…"

"Shut up," Bad groaned.

"Okay!" They jumped and turned around to see Benny floating there, smiling apologetically. "Sorry," he said. "I got the thing. We can go now."

Good nodded. "Alright. What are we doing next?"

Benny shrugged. "No idea!"

"No instructions telling you what you should do or anything?" Bad asked.

Frowning, Benny shook his head. "Dude, who told you to call it instructions? You know I'm a Master Builder. I don't follow instructions unless I have to."

"Wait…" Bad furrowed his brow. "Then… What?"

"I told you; it's just a feeling that I get," Benny reminded. "It might be from space or it might be my own intuition. I mean, that's what all the other Master Builders go by for building things, their own instincts. I just have something extra to use them for."

"And your instincts told you something would happen today?" Good asked.

Benny nodded. "Yeah, totally. But it's still, what, like eight in the morning? We have time before something crazy happens."

**"Beniamine."**

"Darnit," Benny spat out, looking around. "Alright, go straight to English. I'm not putting up with the whole Latin shenanigans. Might as well be using Greek or Russian, I swear…"

**"You have the Relic of Prophecy?"**

"Uh… No?" Benny offered.

**"Beniamine!"**

"Wait, you mean the thing is the thing that Ghost Vitruvius told me about?" Benny asked, pulling an incredulous look. "Dude, that's so weird." He looked at Bad. "Hey, do either of you want to be involved in a prophecy? I know I don't."

Bad shook his head. Good smiled sheepishly. "No, thank you. I'm fine otherwise."

**"Beniamine Danielis, Pandora Geminorum es."**

"I am not!" Benny interrupted.

**"The higher angels have convened and decided. You are to bring Daniel Copper to his demise. Only then can you free yourselves from your cosmic roles."**

"Dude, seriously?" Benny whined. "Do I have to?"

**"You will know what to do. We have faith in you."**

He shook his head. "So you say, but I don't particularly trust you, considering you're not even saying this to my face."

**"There will be challenges for you to face if you do not…"**

"Pass," Bad decided. He took Benny by the hand and began to drag him away and Benny gleefully followed.

**"Do not ignore this! This is of vital importance!"**

"How exactly do we make this person shut up?" Bad muttered.

Benny shrugged. "At least it's not Kosh."

**"Tacete!"** Kosh's voice ordered them.

"Speak of the devil," Bad snorted. "Weren't you threatening to stay away from Benny he wouldn't 'bring my demise'?"

**"You did not,"** Kosh answered. **"So now he will."**

"I don't want to," Benny grumbled. "Can we just not?"

**"Beniamine, you are duty bound!"** the first voice bellowed. **"You risk the destruction of the universe if you do not do as we say."**

Benny gave an aggravated groan and curled his fingers as if he wanted to choke someone. "What is with you people? I do _not_ follow instructions. Not for stupid things like this. Why would I want to bring him to his demise? How will this destroy the universe?"

**"From the past you will find your answers. This is all we will say to you, puer male."**

He tapped the side of his arm, waiting for a few moments before he smirked. "Okay, they're gone."

"Poo-air mah-lay?" Good asked Benny.

"Bad boy," Benny laughed. "Basically, they called me a problem child."

"From the past we'll find our answers," Bad repeated. "What, do we need a history lesson or something?"

"Probably," he shrugged. "To the library?"

"No," he countered. "They still haven't replaced the history books Octan wrote. We'd be better using the actual Octan database."

Benny stared at him, waiting. Bad stared back, silent. Benny then frowned and rolled his eyes. "Okay, dude, are we going to do that or not? You'd have to see Business again if we did."

Good flinched. "I… I suppose if we have to…"

"Great, let's go!" He grabbed onto Good's wrist and pulled him out of the museum.

Bad glanced at Jenny as they passed by and she sent him a sympathetic look, much like the one before. He faced forward again and decided not to question it.


	7. Chapter 7

The minor differences between three words and their meanings could sometimes be staggering. Rules, instructions, and procedures, all of which imply directions to follow, still had vastly different definitions underneath the most superficial of terms.

Rules had to be followed to avoid punishment. If the punishment didn't exist, then rules had to be followed based on principle, where breaking the rules led to self-mistrust, or based on necessity, where rules were like fundamental laws of the universe.

Instructions led to exact results the closer they were followed, and creative ventures the more they were thrown aside. Sometimes it was better to follow them and other times, creativity led to more pleasurable results. Whether or not to follow instructions was a decision left to individuals depending on what they wanted and how they wanted it.

Procedures, on the other hand, were absolute. They were put in place for reasons, often for sanity or safety's sake. No one could land a plane and _then_ bring out the landing gears without causing massive damage and potential death. Unlike instructions, they were necessary steps, and unlike rules, refusal to follow them led to repercussions often worse than punishment.

He and the other both knew how the spaceman viewed instructions. At least one of them would be lying if they didn't admit their surprise that the man followed rules. Procedures were a gray area to them, however, something they weren't yet sure Benny's inclination towards, but something they hoped did not deviate from what they viewed as required for all types, Master Builder, Angel, or not.

"So, uh…" Benny spoke up, glancing over at him for a split second before focusing on his piloting again. "Is there, like… some way to get them to let us in without them assuming we're some bad guys and shooting at us? Y'know, like the proper procedure or something?"

Bad smiled for a moment, but it disappeared as soon as Benny turned his head again. "Yes. Does this ship have a radio or something?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't it? Don't you have a radio on your outfit?"

Bad rolled his eyes. "Just get the radio working."

Benny shook his head and motioned over to a panel. "Here. Use that."

Good nodded and set the radio to the proper frequency. "Hello, this is Good Cop. Over."

"Good morning, sir!" a robotic voice answered. "What do you need? Over."

Bad looked up at the office tower in the distance. "I am approaching Octan tower in a small blue spaceship with the Master Builder Benny. Requesting permission to enter. Over."

"Roger that, Bad Cop, sir. They will be ready to receive you at the service entrance. Should I tell President Business that you are finally returning to work? Over."

"Negative," Bad answered. "But let him know we need his help with something. Over."

"Roger. Do you need anything else? Over."

"Negative," Bad sighed. Good smiled. "Okay, have a nice day, Tina. Over and out."

Benny snickered as Good put the speaker away. "Tina?"

Bad frowned at him. "I'll have you know, Tina is a very respectable person and would not appreciate you laughing at her name."

"Alright, fine, relax," Benny smiled at him. "Which one is the service entrance?"

"That one," Good said as he pointed.

Soon, they had landed the ship and were travelling through the hallway. Robots bustled about them doing business as normal, and one stopped them to say that President Business was waiting for them in his office. Good thanked the robot and led Benny, Bad making sure to stay a few paces in front of the spaceman so that Benny would not see either of their cringes at the approaching meeting.

"Bad Cop!" Business called as they entered the room. He squinted at Benny and hesitated. "And… the blue… space guy… Anyway, Bad Cop, what's the deal with not showing up for work lately? I mean, I know we aren't being evil anymore, but there's soooo many other things I could have you do."

"Just 'Bad' is fine, sir," Bad told him, staring just past him, trying to keep his calm.

"Oh, being all 'informal' are we?" Business asked. "Is that a 'friends' thing? Because we're all friends now, right? How's the… How's Good?"

Good let himself smile, keeping his eyes trained just over Business's head. "I'm okay, sir."

"Dude," Benny frowned.

"Anyway, you said you needed my help?" Business asked. "What with?"

"We need to use the Octan databanks," Bad answered. "There are some things we have to research…"

"What kind of 'things'?" Business asks, lifting his hands for air quotes.

"We're going to stop the universe from being destroyed," Benny grinned. " _Again_. Because the 'powers that be' are humongous jerks and won't leave us alone!"

Business blinked and stared at him. "Uh… Are you alright?"

"No!" Benny laughed, shaking his head. "I'm _furious_."

Taking a wise step back, Business smiled at them and chuckled nervously. "Well, uh… Go ahead, then. I'll be around the tower if you need me… Let me know how it turns out later."

"Of course, sir," Bad nodded. He grabbed Benny by the shoulder and pulled him back out of the office.

Benny pulled away but then wrapped his arms around Bad's shoulders and pressed the sides of their helmets together. "Sorry, was that too much?"

"Just enough," Good assured him. He took a tentative step forward and found that Benny stayed attached to him but hardly slowed him down. Smiling, he picked up the pace towards their next destination, Benny clinging to him like a cape billowing behind his back.

"You looked nervous around him," Benny pointed out.

"I'd be nervous around the others, too," Bad insisted. "Maybe for different reasons, but…"

"You were nervous around me," Benny agreed. "And now look at us."

He found himself stopping in the middle of the hallway and slipped his hand underneath his glasses as his shoulder shook and he made an awkward choking sound.

"Dude!" Benny let go of him in alarm. "What did I say?"

Good's laughter rang out suddenly, and he doubled over, clutching his sides. "We look…" Another series of giggles interrupted him. " _Ridiculous._ Oh my gosh…!"

Benny floated dumbly, his eyes wide as he watched him, but he covered his mouth and snorted and suddenly fell to the floor in laughter as well. Bad grabbed his hand and yanked him up, and helped support him as the two of them kept laughing for almost a minute.

"Feeling better?" Benny asked as their finally calmed down, both of them taking deep breaths to relax.

Good nodded. "Thank you."

"No problem," he grinned, flashing a thumbs up. "I was starting to think I'd never hear either of you laugh."

Bad shook his head. "We better get back to work. Are you gonna…?" He motioned to his shoulders again.

Benny giggled and draped himself over him again, and Bad continued on towards the computer room. Benny's grip tightened as they entered and Bad hummed, tilting his head to try and see the spaceman's face.

"I don't like this computer," Benny whispered. "It was totally undermining me the last time I was here."

Bad hummed and nodded. "You tried using the voice commands, didn't you?"

"Yeah?" Benny asked.

"Do you know how to hack into computers otherwise?"

"Yeah," Benny nodded.

"Try getting information on Velma Staplebot," Good whispered. "But don't say anything."

Benny floated out in front of him, pausing for a moment to send him a confused look, but then went up to the computer. He trailed his eyes over the various buttons, ignoring the computer as it activated and spoke, and then began typing away. After a few minutes, a file popped up on the screen.

"Accessing information on: Velma Staplebot."

"WHAT." Benny stared, gaping.

"Close file," Bad ordered as he approached the consoles. "Open history of the universe database."

"Opening history of the universe database," the computer replied.

"WHAT." Benny turned towards Bad and motioned towards the screen. "Explain!"

"The face recognition software has been malfunctioning for months," Good told him. "It wouldn't have been able to tell you from a potted plant. However, the voice recognition still works fine, so anyone whose voice patterns aren't programmed in can't use it."

"Voice recognition," Benny reiterated. "The stupid thing has voice recognition. Let me guess, it's programmed to _absolutely frustrate the heck_ out of people who don't have the right voice."

Good nodded, smiling at him. "Yes, of course."

"But it listened to Metalbeard!" he argued. "Why did it listen to Metalbeard?!"

Bad frowned. "Huh, maybe the voice recognition actually is malfunctioning… Metalbeard's the Irish pirate, right? It probably confused my accent for his."

"So if I hadn't said anything…" Benny groaned and covered his face with his hands. "I _hate_ modern technology."

Rolling his eyes, Bad turned towards the computer again. "Computer, search history database for events where the universe was almost destroyed."

"Searching… Found 127 events."

Benny winced. "We should narrow down the search. Obviously before Octan took over everything… Man, how does Business even _have_ that much data?"

Bad shook his head. "Computer, how many of those events were before Octan's rise to power?"

"Found 126 events."

"Oh, _that_ helps a lot," Bad muttered.

"You're welcome," the computer answered.

He scowled and glared at the computer. Good sighed and shrugged at Benny. "Well, do you have any idea what time frame we should look at?"

Benny hummed. "I don't know."

"You said you're at least thirty, right?" Bad asked. "Wouldn't it be before then if you haven't heard of it?"

He glanced down at a pocket on the side of his spacesuit. "Yeah, that sounds about right… Look for events from or before 1984."

"You heard him," Bad told the computer.

"Found 126 events."

"When was the most recent of those?" Good asked.

"1984."

"Where?" Bad asked.

"Cloud Cuckoo Land."

"Really?" Benny asked, wrinkling his nose. "I wonder if Unikitty knows anything about it."

"Hmm…" Bad glanced from Benny to the computer screen again. "Computer, what information do you have on that event?"

"Event is a legend of Cloud Cuckoo Land," the computer explained. "Different accounts have been told since the event took place. Most accounts state that the event led to the death of at least one Cloud Cuckoo Lander."

"How was it universe threatening?" Good frowned at the screen.

"Inconclusive. More information held by Cloud Cuckoo Landers."

Benny hummed and then began typing at the keys again. A list popped up on the screen and scrolled up, with a majority of the listings highlighting as they reached the middle of the screen before disappearing.

"Approximately 97 percent of events related to cosmic phenomenon," the computer stated. After Benny typed more, doing another search with the remaining four results. "Three events occurred on alien planets." He typed more. "Four events have mention of a crown." More typing. "Four events lead to death of at least one person."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bad asked Benny.

Benny shook his head. "It means whatever that thing that's going to destroy the universe is, it happened four times before, all over the universe, and apparently someone had to die to prevent it. And considering they said I'll bring _your_ demise…"

"Benny," Bad frowned at him.

"I'm not going to kill you, relax," Benny sighed. "But… Uh… This doesn't look good, is the thing. Maybe we should ask Unikitty. She might know what the legend is. But, seriously, how does Business even have the information he does?"

Bad looked at the computer. "Answer his question."

"Information drawn from illegal hacking of all other records accessible by Earth life including Space Corps files and files from other planets that have had Earth contact."

He dropped his hand into his face. "Well, I guess we can't expect him to be a _total_ good guy, even now."

Benny shook his head. "Ready to see Unikitty?"

"No."

Rolling his eyes, Benny grabbed onto Bad's arm. "C'mon, man, we have to find out more about this."

Good shook his head. "Benny, I have a bad feeling about all of this… What if we just go home and forget about it?"

Sighing, Benny shook his head. "No man, not yet. I promise, I'm _not_ going to kill you. And I won't let anyone else either. Whatever's going to happen, it will _not_ lead to your death, okay? I don't care if the universe is destroyed. You _won't_ die."

He smiled, though his eyes still held a pained expression. "Not again, right? I don't want to… Not again."

Benny nodded. "I don't know exactly what you mean, but, right. Not again."

Good pulled Benny into a hug, and Benny rubbed his back soothingly, arms wrapped tight around him, until Bad let go and took a deep breath.

"Alright," Bad nodded. "Let's go."


	8. Chapter 8

The other watched the horizon, humming softly, while he stayed in the back of their mind, apprehensive of the upcoming visit. The other gave up on trying to reassure him, and so stayed out and merely smiled all through the trip so far.

"Where are we going, again?" Good asked Benny.

"New Cloud Cuckoo Land," Benny answered, grinning. "Since… You know… Old Cloud Cuckoo Land was destroyed recently…"

Good lost his smile and looked down focusing on his hands as gripped together in his lap. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sure Unikitty forgave you by now," Benny assured him. "Or… You know, your other self."

"Why would she?" Bad asked. "I destroyed her home."

"You were just following orders," Benny shrugged. "Would you have done that otherwise?"

"Well…" Bad shook his head. "No, not exactly."

"Uh…" Benny sent him a short, confused look. "Not exactly…?"

Good cleared his throat nervously. "If there were… _Reason_ to… Such as preventing the universe from being destroyed…"

"But if the universe were to be destroyed unless I killed you, you rather the universe be destroyed," Benny pointed out.

"You're the one who made that resolution," Bad growled. "I'm just trying to find a way out of it."

"And you'd try to find a way out of destroying someone's home before doing so to prevent universal destruction, right?" Benny asked.

"Yes, of course," Good nodded. "That would be horrible to make someone homeless without looking for alternatives. Though, I'm curious..."

"Yeah?"

"You were looking for events that had to do with crowns?" he asked, looked at Benny. "Why…?"

"Oh, the, uh… 'Relic'…" Benny sighed. "It's a crown. I've had it ever since I woke up in space ages ago. It's really cool looking. Has gems that look like stars and all… But Kosh didn't want me showing you for some reason. But apparently it has to do with the destruction of the universe, so I don't know what to think about that."

Good nodded. "By the way, what is Kosh's actual name? You said Kosh is a name of a character from a television show, so shouldn't he have an actual name too?"

"Yeah, I think he does," Benny answered. "Christophorus or something like that. Oh, hang tight, it's coming up."

They watched as clouds parted to reveal yet another cloud, but this one covered in rainbows and cuteness and apparently in the midst of being constructed, with one half of it only having a basic frame that various construction workers were busy fixing up.

"Uh…" Bad squinted at the various people in safety orange all milling about. "Benny…?"

"Oh, what, you think we could get _Master Builders_ to work together to rebuild this place?" Benny laughed. "Well, except Emmet. I think most of them are his co-workers, actually."

He landed the ship and helped Bad out onto solid cloud. As soon as Bad was settled, Benny floated straight into the air and looked over at the work-in-progress.

"Wow, that's looking great!" he called out. "Good job!"

The workers all looked up to flash him a thumbs up. Just as Benny floated back down, a blur of orange jumped out from the construction and landed right in front of them.

"Welcome to New Cloud Cuckoo Land!" Unikitty giggled, somehow in safety orange fitted to her unicorn cat body and a hard hat resting between her ears with her horn poking through a skillfully placed hole. She looked at Bad and frowned for a moment before grinning again. "Oh, hi! We haven't seen you in a while!"

"I finally got him out of the house!" Benny giggled. "Just like his parents have been asking us to. I even got him to visit them yesterday."

"Yay!" Unikitty cheered. "It's always great to visit family, isn't it, Mr. Cop?"

Good smiled at her. "Good and Bad is fine, Miss."

"You can call me Unikitty!" she told him. She jumped a bit and laughed. "Let me show you two what we've rebuilt so far! And this time, it won't be destroyed by big meanies who don't know how to play nice, right?" She turned red and glared at Good for a moment, who took a step back and sent her a look of despair.

"O-Of course, Unikitty," Good insisted. "I wouldn't dream of ruining such a cute place."

Benny frowned and shook his head. "Unikitty, relax, Good's not going to do anything, and Bad feels really bad about what he did."

Bad pursed his lips and nodded. "I'm… sorry. I'm sorry. That was wrong of me."

Unikitty brightened again and grinned. "Apology accepted. We're serving refreshments in the New Dog, if you'd like to join us. Benny, we were actually about to call you to join us, so you came at the right time!"

"Great!" Benny pumped his fist. "Oh, hey, we also have something we need to ask you, if you can help at all."

"I'll be glad to try," Unikitty sang. She led them through the newly constructed palace, telling them of all the new features they added already and what else Emmet's co-workers were going to build.

As they were walking into the New Dog, Benny stopped to wave at a red and a white astronaut and then hurried over to them, and the three of them began to talk excitedly about space. Good watched Benny and then looked down at Unikitty in worry as she leaned close, eyeing him intently.

"You have a crush on him, don't you?" she asked suddenly.

"What?" Bad asked in response, flattening his brow. "Why would you jump straight to _that_ conclusion?"

"He's the only one who managed to get you to open up recently," Unikitty giggled, skipping around him. "And he told me how you've kissed him and hugged him and held his hand and how cute you three are together!"

"Two," Bad together. "Us two."

"But you're two in one," Unikitty said, looking up at him in question. "Plus one, so doesn't that make three?"

"Technically?" Good offered.

"Anyway!" Unikitty turned away from him but tilted her head back for him to hear. "You look tired. We have coffee available as well as sandwiches, pastries, and chocolate croissants."

" _Chocolate_ croissants?" Good asked, his eyes going wide.

Unikitty stopped and looked back at him. "Yeah?"

Good's grin slowly took him his entire face and he didn't notice as his hand lifted up and suddenly smacked him lightly, but enough for Bad to take over.

"No," Bad said.

"But!" Good argued.

"You can have a _few_ ," Bad said. "No more than four."

Good pouted. "And I suppose you want coffee."

Bad rolled his eyes and forced a grin at Unikitty, ignoring how her ears folded back in defense. "Thanks. I'd love some coffee."

"You know, you're a lot like a Cloud Cuckoo Lander," Unikitty told him. "Having a happy side and an angry side… Except, you're two people, so it's different. Follow me."

Good nodded and followed after her. "What exactly is the history of Cloud Cuckoo Land?"

Unikitty led Good over to the refreshments table and let Good and Bad get their preferred snacks. "Well, a long time ago, in Middle Zealand, early Master Builder magical creatures decided to make a new home where they wouldn't be persecuted by the magical creature hunters the King at the time had hired. So, they worked together to make Cloud Cuckoo Land, a place where people of all types can be free, but hidden from the other realms so no meanies could do anything bad to us! They chose a royal family to rule Cloud Cuckoo Land and maintain the peace, since even back then, bad feelings would often bring out people's angry sides, and no one wants that.

"Since then, many Cloud Cuckoo Landers left for far off-realms, like my parents who are on vacation and regularly send me letters and are actually coming back home in a few months, so I kiiiinda need this place to be ready by then." She somehow pulled out a photo of her parents, a unicorn and a cat sitting on its back, both of whom were wearing sunglasses, leis, and crowns.

"…Cute," Bad answered. "So you're…"

"Princess Unikitty," she answered. "And besides that, we needed the space for all the Master Builders who went into hiding here and now just like to hang out, but I expect plenty of Cloud Cuckoo Landers will be returning after they know the King and Queen are back." She smiled brightly and turned her head. "The end."

Bad looked up at the sudden applause and jumped back, nearly spilling his coffee all over himself at the sight of the Master Builders all seated around them for the story. Emmet smiled in apology and his girlfriend and Batman just rolled their eyes. Benny stifled his laughter while the pirate guy didn't. Ghost Vitruvius floated hauntingly behind them, and other Master Builders and some construction workers just sat scattered about around them.

Good just looked away and stuffed a croissant in his mouth. He could see Benny float over in his peripheral vision and he felt Benny wrap his arms around his shoulders.

"It's okay, dude," Benny whispered. "Don't worry about them. They know you helped save the day before, so they know you're a good person. Both of you."

Good swallowed his croissant, and Bad busied himself drinking his coffee so he wouldn't have to speak.

Benny shook his head but moved to float in a sitting position next to him. "Unikitty, about that thing I wanted to ask?"

"Yes?" Unikitty smiled up at him.

"Do you know anything about some big event in 1984?" he asked.

Unikitty suddenly lost her smile and shuffled her front paw-hooves nervously. "Well… There was _something_ my parents told me about, but it's not a happy story…"

Benny nodded. "I know, and I don't want to make you sad, but I really need to know."

"Okay, well…" She took a deep breath and then began the story. "About thirty years ago, when my parents were both still young, there was a new visitor to Cloud Cuckoo Land. He said he had come from space, but he wasn't like one of you 80s space guys. He looked like an astronaut, but there was something weird about him. And his name… Was Chris."

"Chris," Bad interrupted. "You're kidding."

"Shhh!" Benny whispered before smiling at Unikitty and motioning for her to continue.

She nodded. "His name was Chris Chu-."

"You're kidding!" Benny interrupted.

"Shhh!" the other Master Builders shushed him, and he winced.

Unikitty rolled her eyes. "His name was Chris Chu…" She waited and then smiled and continued. "And he seemed like a nice person and a lot of people liked him. One person in particular caught his attention. A Cloud Cuckoo Lander named…" She paused for a moment and looked at Benny. "Named Ben Nee."

Everyone stared at Benny as well, while Benny's eyes just widened as he watched Unikitty continue the story.

"He was one of the Cloud Cuckoo Landers that look human, and he really liked space and wanted to go to space one day. So, he and Chris became really close friends, and apparently Chris even told Ben some big secret of his. But then, one day, Chris gave Ben something… A crown I think. It was black like space with gems that look like stars… And no one knows _why_ it happened, but not long after that, Chris took Ben somewhere, and then came back without him." Unikitty whimpered, tears in her eyes. "And he said that he killed Ben and that he was sorry, and he then disappeared forever."

"I need to go," Benny blurted suddenly before rushing out of the New Dog.

"Benny!" Bad called after him. He realized the spaceman wasn't coming back and then turned to look at the others who were all staring at him with various levels of confusion or curiosity.

"What's going on, Bad Cop?" Emmet asked, standing and walking over to him slowly.

He shook his head, trying to process everything he had seen and dealt with the last few days. He had gone from avoiding everyone to seeing all of them within two days, on some bizarre angel-given mission, one that promised to kill him if the angels had any say in the matter. The other gawked blankly in the back of his mind, both of them too stunned to do anything, to say anything until he found himself muttering something just as soon as the other thought it.

"Christophorus."

"Latin form of Christopher?" Batman asked. He frowned when Bad trained his gaze on him. "What? I'm Batman. I know Latin."

He collapsed. He didn't even faint, but he couldn't stay standing, and the other couldn't support him. The coffee dropped, spilling onto Emmet's pant legs, and he winced and hurried to pull them off in panic, and plenty of people averted their eyes and the pirate guy covered Unikitty's.

"Someone get a medic!" the one girl with the hoodie called. Wyldstyle or something. He wasn't sure her name.

"I have basic medical training," the white spaceman called.

"Great, then do something about him, Lenny!" she told him.

"Emmet or the cop guy?"

"I'm fine!" Emmet insisted, his voice pitched up. "I just need pants. Help the cop guy."

"Alright, all of you, clear the area," Lenny ordered. "Kenny, get the supplies."

The red spaceman saluted and hurried out, and the others murmured, but followed suit. He could see Lenny float up to him, kneeling beside him and blocking his line of vision while watching the others as they left. Lenny then bent over and whispered something.

"Go to sleep. You're safe."

He wanted to argue, but the other passed out and he found himself doing the same.


	9. Chapter 9

They woke up at the same time, sitting back to back, opening their eyes to the ever shifting thoughts of their inner mind.

_"Not this again,"_ the other sighed. He stood first and then held out his hand to help him up. _"Why do you think we're in here again?"_

He shook his head. _"I'm starting to think it's because there_ is _a god and that god absolutely hates us and wants to see us suffer."_

_"Wouldn't surprise me at this point,"_ the other answered, shaking his head. _"What do we do?"_

**"Observe your demise."**

_"DARNIT KOSH,"_ he growled, turning towards the cloaked angel. The other gripped his hand and they pressed into each other protectively. _"We know what you did in the past,"_ he snarled.

_"Was that really to Benny?"_ the other asked, furrowing his brow and frowning. _"What did you do to him?"_

"That's what _I_ want to know."

The three of them turned to see Benny there, out of his suit and with his wings spread out.

"Invading mind spaces, again, _Chris_?" Benny asked, scowling at the other angel. "You need to tell us what's going on, dude. I'm not taking that whole 'higher angel secrecy' thing!"

Chris stared, silent and still, but then bowed slightly in a nod. They watched in shock as Chris moved a hand out from under his cloak and removed the scarf covering his face and watched as two sets of galaxy filled wings unfurled.

**"I am sorry,"** Chris answered. **"I was stupid. And I let you die."**

_"And that was to prevent the universe from being destroyed?"_ Bad asked.

**"Yes,"** Chris answered.

_"And our demise will do the same?"_ Good asked.

Chris looked at them, showing confusion. **"No. Your demise will cause it. Your death after will prevent it."**

"What?" Benny asked, his own face contorting in confusion. "Dude, do you know what demise even means?"

**"Demise… of… the crown…?"** Chris volunteered, looking at the three of them.

They looked at each other and then Benny shook his head.

"Dude, start from the beginning," Benny ordered. "I was a Cloud Cuckoo Lander?"

Chris nodded. **"And I showed myself to you. I gave you the crown as told. And then I had to let you die."**

"How?" he asked, taking a small step forward. "How did you let me die?"

**"You wanted to go to space as your final wish. I granted it."**

"I _asked_ to die?" Benny asked, looking disgusted. "Why? What does that crown do?"

Chris stared before answering. **"It grants Peace of Mind. But I let you die. And so I let you become an angel. And then I kept my face covered in shame."**

Bad shook his head. _"Didn't he say something about higher angel secrecy?"_

**"I have rules I must follow,"** Chris answered. **" _They_ want this plan to come to pass. I am one of them. I am forced to follow."**

_"So you can't tell us what the plan is,"_ Good reiterated. _"But you want us to prevent it."_

_"But you won't tell us what we need to do,"_ Bad added. _"Just that our 'demise' will start it and our 'death', which are somehow two different things, will be what stops it if the former happens."_

**"Yes,"** Chris nodded.

Benny shook his head. "You know, I never actually liked the higher angels? This entire thing is giving me a headache."

**"I do not want you hurt again,"** Chris insisted. **"You care about Daniel Copper. Beniamine Danielis, non es Pandora Geminorum."**

"But the other higher angels said I am?" Benny frowned.

Chris nodded. **"Your cosmic role."**

_"What does that even mean, exactly?"_ Bad asked.

Good shook his head. _"And must you have this conversation in_ our _mind? If it's just between the two of you, we rather not be a part of it."_

Benny nodded. "Chris, is that all you can tell us? I think these two will be waking up soon."

**"Yes."** Chris bowed and covered his face again. **"Bona fortuna."**

"I think he's waking up now," a voice whispered.

"Good, we've been keeping everyone out of here since yesterday. They're getting suspicious."

"Relax, you two," a female voice cackled over what sounded like a radio. "This is all as planned. Jen and I have things going well on our ends, so you two just need to make sure it works on yours."

"Yes, ma'am, Penny," the two answered.

"Great. Over and out."

He opened his eyes and groaned as he lifted his hand to his forehead. He squinted at the bright lights above him and wondered where his shades were a few seconds before he realized just what he heard and shot up. The other squinted at the blobs of red and white floating in front of him, noticing them holding something out. He reached out and took one of the items, and put them on once he realized they were his glasses. The other put on his own immediately after.

"We have your helmet and other things here too," the red spaceman told him, motioning to the side at the objects.

He ignored his things and frowned at the two spacemen. "Did that woman say Jen? As in Jennifer Fellow?"

They glanced at each other and shrugged, each of their expression questioning the other blankly. They turned towards him to speak, but before they could say anything, a mass of blue suddenly crashed through the window of the New Dog and slid across the floor until it stopped right next to them.

"Well _that_ was unpleasant," Benny announced from where he now lay on the floor.

Lenny elbowed Kenny. "Time to go," he whispered.

"Wait," Bad interjected, furrowing his brow.

Kenny nodded and smiled at him, and then winked and smirked. "You're on your own."

The two of them hurried out of the New Dog as Benny floated back to his feet, wiping himself off.

"What just happened?" Good asked him, standing up as well.

"Dude, remember that conversation we had in your mind space?" Benny asked.

"Yeah?" Bad asked.

"About how the other higher angels want us to do the thing even though Chris doesn't?"

"Yeah?" Bad grunted forcefully. "Get to the point."

Benny sighed. "They think I'm taking too long. They're taking matters into their own hands."

Good's eyes widened and he hurried out of the New Dog, with Benny trailing close behind him, telling him to wait. Bad scowled at the crowd of strange faces as each of them floated in the sky, their two sets of wings spread and casting night like jagged edges through the morning sky. Unikitty bounded up to him and Benny and wormed in between the two of them.

"Who are these guys?" she asked, a quaver in her voice. "They're just staring at us. They aren't doing anything. What do they want…?"

"Space angels," Benny said. "They want… Unikitty, what does 'demise of the crown' mean?"

"That's a weird question to ask," she answered. "It means to transfer the royal title to someone else."

"Like if I were to take a crown…" Benny started. "One that's, uh… Black as night with gems like stars…? And, uh… Put it on his head?" He motioned to Bad who scowled at him.

Unikitty narrowed her eyes. "Benny, what are you saying…?"

"Oh, forget this," Bad scowled. Good grabbed Benny on either side of his helmet and then pulled him forward and kissed him.

Unikitty pulled out from under them in time for Benny to grab onto Good and kiss Bad the moment he switched in. The higher angels all gave varying looks of disgust, but turned back to their stony glares as Bad let go of Benny and scowled up at them.

"You're not doing the thing with the thing!" he shouted. "I don't know _what_ you're planning, but it can't be good!"

**"Where is the relic, Beniamine?"** None of the angels moved their lips, but the voice echoed for everyone to hear and for many of them to cower.

"I have it," Benny muttered. "I'm not going to use it…"

**"You must. You are duty-bound."**

"I don't care!" Benny groaned. "I don't want to have to kill Danny after!"

Bad scanned the area, watching as various people in safety orange hid within New Cloud Cuckoo Land's structures, while the other Master Builders stood ready to fight, but each of them unsure if they should. A spot of red and one of white caught his attention, though, and he stared as Kenny and Lenny just floated casually, away from the others, calmly watching the scene.

**"You will not have to kill Daniel Copper,"** the angels announced. **"The Demise of the Crown is what will stop the universe's destruction. Christophorus led you astray."**

Kenny and Lenny laughed, too quiet for anyone to hear, but Good could see the same movements he and Benny did in Octan tower.

"You're telling me one thing, and _he's_ telling me another," Benny sighed. "Who exactly am I supposed to believe?"

**"You will gain status as a higher angel,"** they declared. **"And Daniel Copper will be King."**

Kenny said something sarcastically. It looked almost like…

"King of what?" Bad repeated, suddenly catching Kenny and Lenny's attention and grins.

**"King of the universe."**

"Pass," Bad answered. "If my cosmic role is being a normal human, I rather keep that."

**"You are not normal,"** the angels replied. **"You have two sides, conflicting each other. The relic will bring Peace of Mind."**

Good narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "No, thank you, I'm fine as I am."

Kenny and Lenny made some motion at him. Bad took a wild guess and stepped to the side, away from Benny.

A sudden _clunk_ and hiss of air caught their attention and they turned to see a figure in a black spacesuit holding the Sword of Exact Zero into Benny's oxygen tanks as Benny stared wide-eyed towards the angels in front of him. Benny immediately threw off his helmet and then the tank, just as the figure pulled the sword out, and the tank immediately shot like a rocket into the air and crashed into one of the angels before it careened past them to parts unknown.

**"BENIAMINE."**

"That wasn't me!" Benny called, turning around to face the figure who by then had disappeared. He growled, balling his fists and then faced the other angels again. "Okay, fine, you know what? Forget this!" He quickly began tearing off the rest of his suit.

The others gasped in shock, and many of them covered their eyes again as Metalbeard covered Unikitty's, until those who watched gasped again as Benny's wings revealed themselves and everyone gazed in awe.

"You're not taking us alive!" Benny called, suddenly grabbing onto Bad and jetting away from the New Dog with inhuman speed.

"Benny!" Good cried. Bad noticed them heading towards the edge of New Cloud Cuckoo Land and frowned. "Benny, you can't fly now, they're all over the sky!"

Suddenly the were diving down like a rock against gravity, and they weren't sure which one of them cried out "Benny" that time, but they knew it was absolutely useless the moment they hit the water.


	10. Chapter 10

He opened his eyes, dry and in bed, and immediately decided everything had just been one long, bizarre nightmare. The other whispered for him to go back to sleep, that they both felt sore and unrested, that they shouldn't get up yet, and he agreed and let his eyes shut again, turning onto his side.

It was then he noticed the arm draped over him that didn't move as he did, that he felt the minute movements of someone pressing close to his back, and that he felt a face nuzzle into the back of his neck. Common sense told him to be concerned. The other told him to just go back to sleep, _"do you really care right now?"_ , and he decided he didn't and willed himself to sleep again.

The other woke up first later, and he could feel that as he rested in the back of their mind, and so it was his turn to ask the other to keep sleeping.

_"No, I think we should wake up now,"_ the other answered, and against their shared thoughts, he could sense the stars the other saw just in front of their face, somehow clear despite their lack glasses.

He shot his eyes open and flipped over, clenching his teeth when he found himself face to face with a sleeping Benny, one of his wings spread out on the bed and the other curved over them. Benny held onto him, and he found himself unable to move or speak, with how peaceful the sleeping angel looked compared to how stressed and angry he had been in what may or may not be a dream.

He flinched at his sudden doubts, and the other sighed softly and settled an arm around Benny's waist. Benny stirred suddenly from the touch and blinked his eyes open, the two of them staring at each other for a long moment before Benny finally cracked a smile.

"Morning," he whispered.

"How much of that did I dream?" Bad asked first thing.

"Um… None of it?" Benny offered. He chuckled, almost like an apology, and then sat up and reached to the side table for their glasses. "It'd be pretty lame if you went through all that only to find out it was a dream, wouldn't it?"

"I think I would have preferred it, to be honest," Good sighed. They sat up put on their glasses, and Good frowned at Benny. "Where are we?"

"Your place," Benny answered. "It was the only place I could think to go after that whole diving into the ocean thing."

"Yeah," Bad frowned. "That. What was that?"

"Space angel magic," Benny shrugged. "I hate doing it, but…" He sighed and smiled at Bad. "So, I noticed the two of you kissed me? Can I get a repeat of that before I share the bad news?"

Bad flattened his brow, but Good smiled and kissed his cheek. "That's all you're getting," he teased.

Benny pouted, but nodded. "Okay, so. Bad news. The crown was in my suit pocket. I left my suit behind. The higher angels probably have it now, unless any of the Master Builders got to it first. But as you know, they were watching as I took off my suit, so who knows what they think of me now."

"And Kenny and Lenny," Bad said. "You sure those two aren't space angels?"

"Yeah?" Benny furrowed his brow. "I would know if they are. Why do you ask?"

Good shook his head. "Did you see who stabbed your oxygen tanks?"

"No, but I assume you did since I didn't even realize someone stabbed them?" Benny asked, lifting his brow. "Dude, what have _you_ been getting up to without my knowledge?"

"It was someone in a black spacesuit," Bad sighed. "I swear, that's all I saw. They were using the Sword of Exact Zero."

"How the heck did they get that?" Benny frowned. "Never mind. So, obviously Ghost Vitruvius knew what he was talking about… Again…"

"I really don't understand why you people ever doubt me."

Good looked up in alarm and Benny squealed and grabbed onto him.

"Ghost Vitruvius!" he shouted at the bed sheet-covered ghost who still gripped onto the green crystal staff in his ghostly hand. "Where did you come from?"

"Well, you see," Ghost Vitruvius answered. "I died. And then I became a ghost. And that seems to have given me the ability to walk through walls."

"So you walk into my bedroom unannounced?" Bad growled.

"Yes, that much is obvious," Ghost Vitruvius answered. "Now, what are you two going to do about the rest of the prophecy?"

Benny groaned and shook his head. "I don't know. After everything that happened so far, I don't know who I can trust. I don't even know if I can trust my own instincts at this point. I mean, I'm an angel like them, and so I should want what they want to stop the universe from being destroyed." He brought his knees to his chest and frowned. "But I didn't even know I was someone else before what I am now. Or anything about what Chris did, or why he did it…"

Good draped an arm over Benny's shoulders, ignoring how it disappeared partly into his wings, and he pulled Benny close. "You know, I may not be a Master Builder, but I've found that following your instincts usually steers you right. Unless your instincts are really bad. But yours aren't, right?"

Ghost Vitruvius nodded. "He's right, Benny. It's up to the three of you to stop the highest, most secret, most destructive of schemes. Whatever that scheme is."

"Two of us," Bad sighed.

"Sure, don't trust the sage dead ghost who predicted everything else so far," Ghost Vitruvius muttered. "But what are you guys going to do?"

Benny furrowed his brow and pursed his lips, sitting in thought for a long moment before he looked up at Ghost Vitruvius again. "What happened to the crown?"

"What crown?" Ghost Vitruvius asked.

"The…" Benny rolled his eyes. "The Relic that brings Peace of Mind? The crown that's black as night with gems like stars?"

"I have _no_ idea what you're talking about," Ghost Vitruvius answered.

"It was in my space suit!" Benny argued. "What happened to my spacesuit?!"

"Oh, _that_ , well." Ghost Vitruvius shrugged. "Your oxygen tank somehow circled back and crashed into your suit and knocked it into the water as well. After that, all the angels left."

"Dude, really?" Benny frowned. "Wait, then… Then I have no idea what we're supposed to do now…"

"Well, don't look at me," Ghost Vitruvius answered. "I'm just a ghost… Oooooo." He floated up through the ceiling and away.

"That was weird," Bad mumbled.

Benny nodded. "Breakfast? You left the croissants here, right?"

Good nodded eagerly and tossed the blankets off of their legs, rushing to the kitchen with Benny at his heels. Bad started the coffee and then Benny and Good settled with their food as they waited for the coffee maker to finish. As soon as the pot finished, Bad got up to pour two mugs and Good grabbed another croissant and carried it in his mouth as he brought both mugs back to the table. Benny smiled in thanks as he took his, and the two of them did their best to relax before whatever craziness they ran away from caught up with them again.

"Questions," Bad started suddenly, leaning forward.

"Answers," Benny replied, nodding in response. "Go ahead."

"What exactly threw you into the New Dog earlier?"

"You know, I don't actually know?" Benny shrugged. "Just after I exited your mind space, I saw the higher angels all around New Cloud Cuckoo Land and I just _knew_ what they wanted… But then some person in a yellow spacesuit just came out of no where and sent me flying into the New Dog."

"Beniamine Danielis, non es Pandora Geminorum," Good repeated. "What does that mean?"

"Aha, well…" Benny grinned nervously, shifting in his seat as he hesitated. "Daniel's Benjamin, do not be the Pandora of the twins."

"Our Benjamin, huh?" Bad smirked.

"Apparently," Benny grinned, nodding. "Do I get another kiss yet?"

Bad frowned again. "Not done with the questions. Pandora of the twins?"

Benny shook his head. "I don't really know what that one's about… You know Greek mythology?"

"No," Good answered.

"Oh, well…" Benny glanced up as he thought and then he started to explain. "Basically, these two guys angered the gods by giving fire to the mortals, so the gods created the first woman, Pandora, as a punishment. And Pandora had a jar with her, which is sometimes is misinterpreted as a box, that she opened out of curiosity. And when she did, it unleashed all the evils of the world, leaving only hope behind when she finally closed the lid again. I think 'twins' is supposed to be you two, but I don't know why the other angels say I _am_ this if it sounds really bad for the universe, y'know? That's why I'm not sure what exactly they want or why I have to do it."

Good nodded. "Alright… One last question…" Bad furrowed his brow, glancing away for a moment before look up at Benny again. "Did you ever get any other 'feelings' on what you should do?"

Benny took a deep breath and then nodded. "I… I think I'll need to go to space. Maybe. It's hard to say at this point. That's all I got."

Bad nodded. "You said you wanted another kiss?"

He laughed and hurried over to his side of the table. Mere minutes later, they pulled away at the sound of the doorbell.

"Uh-oh…" Benny whispered. "Think they caught up to us?"

Bad pursed his lips, but stood and marched to the door. He peered out and spotted nothing out of the ordinary, and so he risked poking his head out and looking around. He gasped and threw the door open at what he saw. He took a step out only to find himself tripping on something on the doorstep just as he did, and he fell to the ground, barely with enough time to throw out his hands to catch himself.

"Dude, you okay?" Benny called in a panic before rushing to help him up. He glanced over at what tripped him and frowned. "Is that my spacesuit?" he choked out in disbelief

Good dusted himself off and then calmly motioned to the driveway. "Is that your spaceship?"

"Dude!" Benny shouted. He floated all around the spaceship to inspect it for damage. "How did this get back here? _Why_ did this get back here?"

"Benny, you might want to get your suit back on," Bad reminded. "Your wings?"

"I don't really care about _that_ anymore, dude," Benny sighed.

Good nodded and picked up the suit. "Fair enough, but the crown…?"

Benny's eyes widened and he gasped before he dived back to his suit. He snatched it away and fumbled with it. "Shoot, shoot, darnit, is it…?" He opened a pocket and reached in.

Good watched in wonder as Benny pulled out a crown, formed of a deep black metal with white gems that sparkled like stars. "What do we do with it now?" he asked. "I obviously can't wear it, and I'm afraid to even touch it… What does it mean to bring 'Peace of Mind'?"

Benny shook his head. "I don't know. I don't know how to get rid of it… It's got to be made from some seriously tough stuff…"

Bad stared at the crown and then looked up at the spaceship again. "Benny, what color spacesuits did the 80s astronauts wear?"

"What?" Benny scrunched up his face and then shrugged. "Blue like mine, red, white, yellow, and black. Why do you ask?"

"Jenny, Penny, Kenny, Lenny, Benny…" Good muttered.

"Who's Penny?" Benny asked. "Man, you're being weird again. And that's saying something."

"Let's go to where this all began," Bad decided. "We'll take my car."

"We're going to the space museum _again_?" Benny moaned in annoyance.

Good smiled and shook his head. "No. We're going to the coffee shop."


	11. Chapter 11

They walked into the coffee shop and all talking quickly ceased amid the stares of the patrons and employees in their direction. He scanned the crowd, daring someone to speak, to say anything about the person at his side, and the other switched out the moment someone did.

"You're alive!" Emmet called, the chair screeching across the floor as he stood up from his table in the corner where he and his friends were stationed, including Unikitty and the pirate guy somehow, but they have long learned not to question how that guy fit into anywhere. The only one missing at that moment was Ghost Vitruvius, but they learned recently not to question that guy either.

Benny smiled and waved. "We're alive!" he responded, and that was enough for the other patrons to continue their own conversations, albeit at whispers. Benny took Good's hand and led him over to Emmet's table where they pulled up seats and leaned into the conversation, huddled together like a sports team about to start the game after a ludicrous halftime show.

"You guys alright?" the lady asked.

Benny flashed a thumbs up. "More or less, Lucy."

Unikitty narrowed her eyes at Benny. "So… You're one of them? Those guys from yesterday?"

He nodded. "Yeah, apparently. I'm a space angel."

"Your wings are so pretty!" Emmet squealed in delight. "Can I… Can I touch them?"

Benny smirked and turned slightly, letting a wing stretch over Emmet's face and then through him. Emmet disappeared from sight of mere seconds before Benny folded the wing close again. Emmet laughed, bouncing in his seat excited.

"Man, that was _awesome_ ," Emmet cheered.

"What did it look like in there?" Lucy asked.

"What?" he asked. "Oh, exactly the same as it does normally. But I got to be in a space wing!"

Bad shook his head. "Alright, stop playing around for now. Whatever happened with the space angels isn't over yet."

Benny nodded. "None of you took my ship or suit off of New Cloud Cuckoo Land?" he asked. At their confirmation, he continued. "Besides that, none of you would really know where we were… Except Ghost Vitruvius, of course, but is he even here right now? Anyway, someone brought them back, managed to actually _find_ us, and so I have this…" He set the crown on the table and pointed at it. "No one touches it besides me, got that? I don't care if you have to topple over a poor old lady to get away from it, _do not touch it._ "

Unikitty nearly glared at the thing. "So do you have it because you… Because you really are…?"

He sighed. "The higher angels want me to use it on Good and Bad. I don't know what it'll do, but I don't particularly trust it'll be a good thing. Chris said that if I put it on him, it'll make the universe end, unless I manage to kill him after. I guess that's why he had to kill _me_ like that, since he fell for it and gave me the crown to start with."

"But how are you originally a Cloud Cuckoo Lander?" Unikitty asked. "I've known you for a long time… You never had a happy side and an angry side, you always had one side for all of your emotions…"

"There be a mystery for ye," Metalbeard said as he shook his head. "Did yer unfortunate end destroy the boundaries between yer two sides, or was it the crown to start with?"

"What do you mean?" Benny asked.

"Ye heard what the other angels said," he continued. "The crowns brings ye Peace of Mind. And they want it to be used on the landlubber with 'two conflicting sides'."

"Like the happy side and the angry side Cloud Cuckoo Landers have," Batman mused. "The crown will probably do something stupid like make you two one person."

"No, it can't possibly," Good paled. "Bad and I… We need both of each other."

"Why would it even do that?" Benny asked. "What good does that do, and how does that make him the 'king of the universe'?"

"You're the angel," Batman answered. "You tell us. Cogitas ergo es."

"Oh, shut up," Benny sighed. "I hate Latin. Cogitbam ergo odio."

"Cogitabam," Batman corrected on a cough.

Benny dropped his hand into his face and bent over onto the table.

Bad cleared his throat. "Translations?"

"You think therefore you are," Batman answered.

"I thought therefore I hate," Benny lifted his face to reply before letting it fall into his hands again.

Good rubbed Benny's back soothingly. Benny wormed one hand from his face and he reached out and hooked it around Good's arm.

"So, one more question," Lucy said. "Benny, are you just going to run around in nothing but your underwear until this is over…?"

Benny peeked up at her, and his face suddenly turned red. "Uh… Maybe?"

"No," she answered, shaking her head at him.

"It's long underwear," Benny insisted, sitting up again. "It's fine, right? I mean, Danny didn't say anything, so..."

"Who's Danny?" Emmet asked.

Good raised his hand.

"And you didn't say anything about your boyfriend's clothes?" Lucy asked.

"I may have been a little too occupied to have realized…" Good answered sheepishly. Bad frowned. "I have _angels_ trying to do who knows what to me. At least he actually is _wearing_ clothes."

Benny smirked at Bad. "Want me to change that?"

"Dude!" Emmet swiped his fingers over his neck. "Cut it out. There are _children_ here."

Benny pouted and leaned into Good. "Relax, I'm an angel. I not able to say something that's actually bad."

"What happens if you do?" Unikitty asked.

"Don't be encouraging him, lass," Metalbeard insisted.

"Actually…" Benny chuckled nervously. "Remember when we were on Metalbeard's ship and I said how 'you're really letting the oxygen out of my tank'?"

"You mean that wasn't just you using cute space-themed phrases?" Emmet asked.

Lucy shook her head. "Can we get to the point and get Benny some clothes before whatever he and 'Danny' have to do about that weird looking crown? How much time do we have before those other angels find you guys anyway?"

Batman jutted a thumb towards the front entrance. "Judging from how dark it suddenly got, no time at all."

They all turned to look outside to see cars stopping in the middle of the road and their occupants exiting them and fleeing in the opposite direction of something in the sky. The shadows swooped about, as if the angels outside were searching for them.

Benny grabbed the crown off the table and jumped to his feet. He then ran to the counter and talked to the barista who stared until they managed to come back to attention and reached under the counter and then handed him a paper bag. Benny shoved the crown into the bag and then spoke with the barista again. They watched in confusion as Benny waited for the barista to hand over a tray of six drinks, which Benny paid for with money that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. Once he returned to their table, Benny handed one of the cups to Bad and then tucked the bag on the floor next to his feet as he sat down with his own drink, leaving the other four on the tray.

"What the heck was that about?" Batman asked.

"Uhh…" Benny glanced down at the coffee in his hands. "Would you believe me if I said I actually have absolutely no idea?"

"The angels are obviously outside…" Lucy started. "And something just possessed you to buy six cups of coffee. Like, right in the middle of whatever's happening outside."

"Who are the other four even for?" Emmet asked.

Benny looked up and pointed to the door. "One of them is for her."

"Miss Fellow?" Good asked, squinting at the woman at the door.

Jenny waved at them and then looked over the people in the coffee shop who were ignoring her and carrying on their conversations as normal. She lifted up a hand and then snapped, and suddenly everyone was gone besides those sitting at their table. The other Master Builders quickly rose to their feet, but Benny and Bad stayed seated and continued sipping their coffee.

"I was expecting a booming voice telling everyone to leave," Bad commented.

"Nah, too showy for Jen," Benny answered. "Though I was at least hoping to see _her_ wings out before she did anything."

"Benny, who is she?" Unikitty asked.

Benny motioned to her. "Ask her yourself."

Jenny walked over and smiled at all of them before taking the tray of coffee off the table. "Jennifer Fellow, nice to meet you. Don't worry about the others. They're all at home, sleeping for now. They'll probably just think this is a dream once they wake." With that she stepped passed them to another table, taking the drinks with her.

Benny frowned and leaned over the back of the chair towards her. "Jen, wait, you're not a higher angel. How were you able to do that?"

"You'll find out," Jenny answered. "Now, all of you be patient… The other three will be arriving soon… Feel free to sit again, they might actually be late."

The others all glanced to each other before deciding to sit again. Not long after, a spaceship crashed into the front window of the shop and a familiar pair of Master Builders jumped out.

"Kenny and Lenny?" Emmet asked.

They waved and pulled off their helmets before sliding into the booth with Jenny, sitting opposite her, and they then grabbed their drinks.

"Do you _always_ have to make a mess like that?" Jenny sighed.

"You know it's not fun unless _something_ is broken," Kenny answered.

"And you know how what's his face over there will react once the 'thing' happens," Lenny added, pointing at Bad.

Bad scowled but Benny stared at them, jaw open wide.

"W-Wait, you two are just regular 1980s space guys!" Benny argued. "W-What are you doing here?"

"Aw, Ben, you precious child," Kenny laughed.

"Bless your little cotton socks," Lenny added. "Just you wait. Just you wait…"

Another woman walked in just then through the back entrance. "Hey, Ken, Len, did you really have to block off the front?"

"Penny!" they greeted as the woman slid into the seat next to Jenny and grabbed the remaining drink.

Penny looked over Ben and flashed a thumbs up. "Long johns and cotton socks. Cute."

"Who are you?" Benny asked, looking exasperated. "What's going on…?"

Bad hummed and lowered his coffee from his lips. "Miss Fellow, of you and Miss Penny, which is black and which is yellow?"

"I'm yellow," Jenny answered. "Penny is black."

"Yellow and black, you mean…" Benny gasped. "Jen, you threw me into the New Dog? And _you_. You stabbed my oxygen tanks with the Sword of Exact Zero?"

"Penelope Mack, nice to meet you," she greeted with a small salute. "I really like your boyfriend, Ben. Good luck with the rest you have to do."

"Fair warning right now," Kenny added. "Not all of you may remember this when it's over. Haven't really decided that yet."

"Yeah, Jen…" Lenny glanced towards her. "Why'd you keep Ben's friends around?"

"I have some ideas," Jenny answered. "Strange how it worked out, though. I thought it would have been Unikitty."

Penny nodded. "Yeah, it being another Cloud Cuckoo Lander would have made more sense." She chuckled. "It'll be hilarious now that it's _this_ guy. And they still don't realize what's going to happen?"

"Not a clue," Kenny answered. "Ben knows he'll have to go to space soon, and the higher angels think they know what they're doing. Good thing we decided to have Kosh as one of them but against them."

"Am I the only one who's completely lost right now?" Emmet asked.

"Nice job deciding to meet at a coffee shop, Danny," Lenny called over. "Thanks for the drinks Ben. Just ignore us for now. We just wanted to go ahead and get into position for what's about to happen."

"What's about to happen?" Unikitty frowned.

Jenny lowered her cup from her lips. "Apocalypse."

"Apocalypse?!" their entire table called before looking at each other in various degrees or fear or incredulity.

"Oh relax, it's never _that_ big a deal," Kenny answered.

"Wouldn't have happened 127 times before if it was," Penny added. "Speaking of, we're forgetting someone."

"Oh, right," Jenny nodded. She snapped her fingers again, and suddenly another form materialized right next to them all, holding up two pairs of pants despite the skirt he was wearing.

Lenny choked on his coffee while Kenny just laughed. Business blinked and lowered both pairs of pants while looking around.

"This isn't Octan Tower," Business announced. He looked at their table and gasped. "You're all having coffee without me? No fair!"

"Are you in a skirt?" Emmet asked.

"You look so pretty!" Unikitty told him.

"Today's casual Friday," Business frowned at them. He turned towards Kenny and pointed. "And you. Stop laughing. There is nothing wrong with feeling empowered by your choice in clothing."

"Sir," Bad interrupted. "May I request you let Benny borrow one of those trousers?"

"Huh?" Business looked over at Benny and yelped, jumping back. "What are those things on your back?!"

Kenny laughed harder, and Benny rolled his eyes.

"Sir," Bad asked again.

"Huh? Oh, sure." Business held out one of the pairs of pants, almost as if he were afraid to get near Benny.

Benny grabbed them and stood up to put them on and then looked over at Lucy. "Happy now?"

Lucy shook her head. "I'm sorry, this entire thing is just a _little_ hard to process."

Batman nodded. "It's like the fourth… maybe third weirdest thing that I ever experienced."

"I'm a little out of the loop," Business reminded. "What weird things are happening this time?"

"Apocalypse," Jenny answered again.

"Oh, is that all?" Business sighed and headed towards the restrooms. "Well, I better change into pants for this. I'll be right back."

"I don't be trustin' these newcomers," Metalbeard whispered to the rest of their table.

"Do we have a choice?" Emmet asked. "You saw what Miss Fellow did right when she walked in."

"Aye, but there be four of them," Metalbeard continued. "And they be bringing the apocalypse at their heels…"

"What are you saying?" Good asked.

Business stepped out of the restroom again and smoothed down his pant legs before walking up to them again. "So, what's with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse over there?" he asked, jutting a thumb over his shoulder to the other table.

"Oh please," Lenny sighed. "We haven't ridden horses in ages. Spaceships are where it's at."

"Wait, what?" Benny asked, scowling at them. "What do you _mean_? Which of you is which?"

Penny shrugged. "Well, I guess if we go by colors… Ken would be War, Len would be Famine, Jen would be Pestilence, and I'd be Death. But that's kind of… stupid."

Kenny nodded. "Yeah, we're not actually the Four Horsemen. Gosh, if they _are_ real, that'd be something to see."

"We're not here to end the world," Jenny agreed. "What's the point of building it all up just to tear it down?"

"Which brings us to you," Lenny stared at Bad who scowled in response. He grinned and winked. "Tell them off something awful for me, won't you?"

"What?" Bad asked.

Before they could hear an answer, their group found themselves standing outside, and Ghost Vitruvius floated up through the ground to join them.

"That was a ridiculously long coffee break," he pointed out as all eight of them looked around in confusion.

Benny yelled suddenly, pulling at his hair. "Where's the CROWN?!"

They all looked around in alarm, but none of them could find the bag the crown was in until it dropped right onto Bad's head. Good pulled the bag off and they all looked up to see the higher angels floating around them, one of them holding the crown in their hands.

"Benny, can anything kill an angel?" Bad asked.

Benny shook his head. "We're nigh indestructible. You can distract them by attacking, though."

"Then let's distract them," Batman decided, pulling out batarangs.

"You heard him!" Bad ordered. "Go!"

The angel holding the crown swooped down towards Bad, but Metalbeard tackled them, knocking the crown from their hands. Benny jumped to grab it, but another angel beat him to it. That angel was then hit by Lucy's creation, which knocked them further down the street. Emmet and Batman meanwhile faced angels dead on, doing their best to knock them away to give Benny a clear shot of getting the crown again.

Unikitty bumped up again Bad. "Mr. Danny, come with me! You too, Mr. Business!"

"That's President- Hey!" Good dragged Business away before he could finish his sentence, and they followed Unikitty away from the fight to their safety.


	12. Chapter 12

Bad peeked out of the alleyway until Unikitty nudged him back into it. Business shook his head and sighed.

"Is this really the best place to hide from those..." He shook his head again. "What even are those guys?"

"Space angels," Bad answered.

"And the blue space guy is one of them?" Business asked.

"Yes, sir," Good nodded.

"And what do they want from _you_?" he demanded.

"They want to put that crown on me," Bad sighed. "Something about crowning me King of the Universe…"

"That's stupid," Business frowned.

Good nodded. "I know, sir."

"I mean, what good does that do for bringing the Apocalypse?" he continued. "It happened, what, four times before? It didn't work then, so why would it work now?"

"You know about this?" Unikitty asked.

Business nodded. "Sure I do. I mean, really, as much as I was trying to end the world by freezing everything in place, at least everything would still _exist_. As far as I can tell, every time that crown appears, it's with the intent to destroy everything."

"But the angels claim that they intend to prevent the universe's destruction through the crown," Good frowned. "And Benny says that the angels actually are supposed to prevent the universe from ending. So why would all the higher angels want to do the opposite?"

"I would really like it if you'd all stop leaving me behind," Ghost Vitruvius said as he floated up to them again. "I am _dead_ , not invisible."

"Oh, V-Vitruvius," Business grinned nervously. "Sorry about that whole… Y'know, that _killing_ you thing. No hard feelings?"

"I am so haunting your hiney for at least a week after this is over," Vitruvius answered.

Bad rolled his eyes. "Ghost Vitruvius, if you're the one who made that bizarre prophecy about what's to happen, then do you know any way to stop it?"

"Well…" Ghost Vitruvius paused for a moment in thought and then answered. "I think you put your left foot in, you put your left foot out, you-."

"That's the Hokey Pokey!" Bad argued.

"Wait, what are you asking about again?" Ghost Vitruvius asked.

"How to stop the prophecy, sir," Good answered.

"Oh." Ghost Vitruvius shook his head. "It's a prophecy. You can't stop it if it's true."

"Didn't you _make up_ the one about Emmet?" Business asked.

"Yes, but that also came true, so there." Ghost Vitruvius crossed his arms and sighed. "No one has faith in the prophecies of a sage dead ghost anymore, do they? You're on your own. President Business, expect that haunting after this is over… Oooooo…"

Ghost Vitruvius sank into the ground and Unikitty shook her head and sighed. "Never mind him," she told them. "The others will take care of the angels, and Benny will get that crown, and Mr. Danny won't have to worry about whatever it does to him."

**"Beniamine,"** an angel called out. **"You have been led astray, and you have led your friends down that same path. If you do not fulfill your duty, we will have to set punishment on you."**

"Oh, you resort to threats now that _I_ have the crown?" they could hear Benny shout back. "Why do _I_ have to be the one to do it anyway? Let me guess, _you_ guys aren't actually allowed to be the one to put it on Danny!"

**"The crown is rightfully yours,"** the angel answered. **"Only you can place it on another. As it was when belonged to Christophorus before he gave it to you. And with the angel who gave it to him before Christophorus died. And so on."**

"So that's your game, huh?" Benny demanded. "You haven't found a person who survived long enough for whatever you want, that you keep forcing the next person to pass on the crown? How stupid are you?! I'm not putting this crown on Danny, and you can't force me to!"

**_"Daniel Copper…"_ **

Good blinked and shook his head. Bad glanced around and didn't see anyone else who noticed the new voice… Or rather, voices… A strange combination of four voices at once…

**_"Put on the crown…"_ **

_"Why?"_ he and the other asked at the same time.

**_"Free them from their binds…"_ **

_"What?"_ they asked.

**_"The crown must be destroyed…"_ **

_"We know."_

**_"But you must put it on so that it can…"_ **

Business peeked out of the alleyway and then gasped. "Bad Cop, I think you better look at this…"

Bad shook his head and frowned. He looked out of the alley as well, his eyes widening at the sight.

Benny stood in the middle of the street, his wings spread and with the crown gripped tightly in his hands, while the angels around them all had a hold on the rest of his friends, the four of them still fighting for their freedom. Unikitty gasped and folded her ears, blinking between pink and red. Good knelt down beside her.

"Unikitty, dear, could you do me a favor?" he asked.

She breathed heavily but looked up at him. "Yes...?"

"I want you to stay calm," he told her. "Close your eyes and count down from ten, and take deep breaths. Don't peek until you make it to zero."

"Why?" she asked.

Good smiled at her. "You'll make better decisions on what to do next if you're calm. Please? For me."

She frowned but closed her eyes and started counting. "Ten… Nine…"

Bad frowned and motioned for Business to stay silent.

"Eight… Seven…"

Business tried to grab onto his arm, but missed as Bad rushed out to the street.

"Six… Five…"

Benny stared in shock as Bad stopped in front of him.

"Four… Three…"

Good grabbed Benny by the waist and pulled him into a kiss. Benny dropped the crown with a clatter. The angels holding the others dropped them in disgust, and they all fell into a pile on the ground, luckily with Metalbeard on the bottom.

"Two… One…"

Bad lowered his shades slightly to wink at Benny, and Benny grinned and tackled him.

"Zero… Hey!" Unikitty frowned at the hand that suddenly blocked her vision and tried to peek up and down past it. "Mr. President Business!"

"Sorry, you're not old enough to see stuff like this," Business told her, expertly keeping her eyes covered, while the others all looked away from the scene in disgust as well.

"Benny," Bad laughed. "Not right now. Not on the _street._ Benny!" Good laughed harder as Benny continued leaving kisses down his neck.

One of the higher angels looked at another. **"This is pointless. They are too chaotic to listen to orders."**

**"And yet they left themselves prone to…"** the second angel trailed off.

**"We'd have to remove his status to do that,"** a third reminded, moving forward slightly.

**"Puer male,"** the first pointed out. **"We want to set punishment. It is what he deserves."**

Benny looked up at that. "What do I deserve…?" He jumped off of Bad and onto his feet. "No, wait, you can't do that! You…"

Bad got up in time to catch him as his knees buckled, and Good stared in horror as Benny's wings faded into the ether while Benny shook and continuously mumbled "No".

"Benny?" Bad asked.

Benny stared up at the angels and growled. "You incorrigible…!" The rest of his shout left even Metalbeard to blush while Business clamped his hands over Unikitty's ears to her relief.

"I don't think that's a proper use of a cross axle, Benny!" Emmet called, a horrified look on his face.

"Shut up!" Benny yelled at him before looking up at the angels again. "Well, so what if you made me human?! I still won't willingly put the crown on… No… No, please!" He took on his own look of terror and gripped onto Good's sleeve. "You're not supposed to do that to mortals! It'll… Please!"

**"You had plenty opportunity, Beniamine Danielis."** The angels began to disappear a few at a time. Benny buried his face into Bad's chest while Bad held onto him protectively.   **"We've given you plenty of chances. You could have been a higher angel. Pandora Geminorum es."** Finally, only one angel was left in the sky, and they smiled. **"Even if we must force the role on you."** The last angel disappeared as well.

"I'm sorry," Benny whispered. He then slowly let go of Good and glanced at his hands, flexing them slowly, as if testing them.

"Benny," Good asked, reaching for him tentatively.

"I suppose dying once before has made his body weaker than other mortals," Benny said, ignoring Good as he reached for the crown. "No matter. I still have plenty of time."

"Benny, what are you doing?!" Lucy shouted.

Bad jumped back. "Did you just _possess him?!_ Good God!" He looked up as angels appeared on either side of him and held him in place, and he struggled to no avail as more angels grabbed hold of the others once more.

"Benny" smiled and held up the crown. "Now is not the time to choose to be religious, Daniel Copper. As long as it is _his_ body, this should work…"

"Please, no…" Good insisted as he tried to pull away from the crown. "Stop! Not again!"

"Benny" smirked and without another word placed the crown over Good's head. As soon as the act was done, the angels disappeared and Benny's eyes shut as he fell forward into Good's arms. Good set him on the ground and then dropped to his own hands and knees, sobbing.

"Did that even do anything?" Batman asked.

"G-Guys…?" Unikitty called. "I don't think Benny's breathing…"

Business rushed over to Benny and the others followed, and Business check Benny for a pulse. After a moment, he let go of him and bowed his head. Metalbeard held his hat to his chest, Emmet turned into Lucy's shoulder to cry, and Unikitty buried her face into Business's pant leg.

"Gone…!" Good sobbed. "He's gone…!"

Batman walked to his side and crouched down next to him. "I'm… sorry. I know you… Well… We could _all_ see how…"

Good looked up at him in horror. "Bad's gone!"


	13. Chapter 13

No one knew what to say or do, so they let Good continue to cry, and the more sensitive of the rest of them cried along with him. Finally, Good's sobbing ceased, and he just sat in the middle of the street, next to Benny's still body, staring blankly at nothing.

"What…" Emmet wiped his tears. "What happens now…?"

No one could answer right away, but suddenly a quiet voice, just below a whisper, said something, and they all looked down to see Good moving his lips.

"Oh, Danny boy," he sang, only slightly louder, but enough for them all to hear, "the pipes, the pipes are calling... From glen to glen, and down the mountain side… The summer's gone, and all the roses falling… It's you, it's you must go and I must bide."

The others glanced to each other, but said nothing. Emmet took Lucy's hand, Business knelt next to Unikitty and she pressed into him as he hugged her, and Batman stood beside Metalbeard where they stood straight like soldiers at a funeral.

"But come ye back when summer's in the meadow," Good continued. "Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow… It's I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow… Oh, Danny Boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so…" He sniffled and wiped tears from his eyes. "But when ye come, and all the flowers are dying… If I am dead," he choked a bit and then continued, his voice quavering, "as dead I well may be… Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying… And kneel and say an Ave there for me…"

Good took Benny's hand and squeezed it tight, as if he refused to let go. "And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me… And all my grave will warmer, sweeter be... For you will bend and tell me that you love me… And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me…"

He choked back a sob but then let go of Benny's hand and stood up, brow furrowed over the pain in his eyes. "It's not over yet," he insisted. "Benny's supposed to go into space. He hasn't yet. It's not over yet…" He reached up to the crown on his head and gave a small tug, but found it stuck. "It's not over yet," he repeated. "It's not."

"Come on, Good Cop," Business urged. "It may not be over, but we can't do anything here… Not if it really is apocalypse."

"And just where are they, hmm?" Good asked, gaining in volume. He chuckled and smiled strangely as he looked around. "Kenny, Lenny, Penny, and Jenny. If they have something to do with this, some plans they want to do… Then where are they…?"

Business gasped and took a step back at the fire in Good's eyes. "Oh no… Please don't tell me that _you're_ mad…"

"What's wrong with _him_ being mad?" Lucy asked.

"He can't be worse than Bad Cop when he's mad," Emmet agreed. "He's too nice of a guy…"

Kenny and Lenny appeared just then, out of nowhere, and walked closer.

"Alright, what's the damage this time?" Kenny asked, only to be decked across the face. He fell back into Lenny's arms and nursed his jaw. "Dude!" he shouted.

Good smiled, an almost crazed look in his eye as his fist shook, still in the air from the punch he gave. "Whatever you've been planning…" he answered in a strained, happy tone. "I don't like it. Sorry."

"Relax, will you?" Lenny frowned at him. "This is all going actually better than we hoped."

He chuckled and pointed down at Benny. "How is _this_ better?!" he demanded, his voice cracking slightly.

Lenny and Kenny both winced. "Yeah, okay," Kenny started.

"That one _isn't_ better," Lenny finished. He flinched and covered his face as Good took a step forward "Ah no, wait, we'll fix it! Penny, Jenny, fix it!"

Penny and Jenny appeared as well, stepping out from behind Metalbeard nervously. Jenny glanced at Penny and motioned for her to go over to Benny. Penny nodded and slipped past the others to his body and knelt beside him. The others watched her inspect him.

"We can't keep doing this," she said. "This is the second time he's died…"

Good took a deep breath and knelt beside her. "How did he die this time?" he asked quietly, calmly.

"Higher angels exude a lot of power," Jenny answered. "It's more than most mortals can take. When one of them possessed him, it was even harder on Benny given that he died once before and that the possession wasn't willing so he was still fighting against it… Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't even have enough left to leave a ghost behind, with it consumed by the higher angel's power…"

"Under our circumstances," Penny continued. "We're going to go against those stupid angels' rules…"

"So you four aren't actually angels," Good surmised. "What are you, then?"

Penny smiled at him and then snapped her fingers. When nothing happened, she frowned and pulled Benny's limp form up by the shoulder. After glaring at him for a moment, she then slapped his face. Jenny dropped her face into her palm and Kenny and Lenny rolled their eyes, but the others watched as Benny took a ragged breath, his eyes wide and wild. Penny let go him and Good caught him and pulled him against his chest.

"Benny…" He sobbed and held on tighter as Benny wrapped his arms around him. "Benny, Benny…"

"Dude, relax, I'm alright," Benny mumbled before pulling away to glance up at the crown. "Oh… So… What did it…?"

"Bad's gone," Good sobbed. "He's gone…"

Benny groaned and stood up, but almost toppled over. Metalbeard caught him and kept him upright until Good stood up to support him. Benny frowned at the Four Spaceman and narrowed his eyes.

"Alright," he demanded. "I'm not an angel anymore. I'm still a Master Builder, I'm sure of that. But I'm a small ball of space rage right now, so _tell me_ who you guys are and what you're planning!"

Lenny chuckled and went up to him, placing his hand on Benny's shoulder. "All in good-." He flew back, leaving Kenny to return the favor of catching him, and then nursed his own jaw. "Why do you guys keep _doing_ that?!"

Benny shook his hand to relieve the pain and then turned towards Jenny and Penny. "What about you two? Any answers? I really need to know."

Penny looked at Jenny who nodded. Penny sighed and shrugged at Benny. "We… I suppose you could say that we _do_ come when there's Apocalypse, that we _could_ be the Horsemen, but we come to prevent it, not encourage it."

Lenny sighed. "We try to act as little as possible, so we don't ruin the natural order of things, but we obviously have to do more as Apocalypse draws closer… After everything that the world built up, we're not going to let it all be torn apart, though we do have to be careful about just what we do…"

Kenny nodded and continued. "There's not a name for people like us. Not a formal one, anyway. We're supposed to work in space or with space angels to ensure the universe's continuation, but usually under disguises. Len and I acted as normal Master Builders, Pen stayed in the shadows... Jen's the only one who dared to pretend to be a space angel, but it actually worked out pretty well to keep her close to Kosh and the crown."

Jenny smiled. "In a sense, we're ones who can give you orders. Not all of them, mind, just when it suits our purposes."

"Like asking Benny to get us coffee," Penny chuckled.

Jenny rolled her eyes and then continued. "Emmet, do you remember being told to touch the Piece of Resistance?"

"Uhh…" Emmet shrugged. "Vaguely… That was you?"

"Not one of us four," Lenny answered. "But not unlike us. Us four work together because of our similar names and theme with the spacesuits. Then along comes Benny who has a name like us and a suit in the remaining color… And wouldn't you know it, _he's_ the angel to help you save the world before, and he's the one with the crown in his possession. That's how we knew to watch him and make sure everything happens to actually _destroy_ the darn crown this time so that the higher angels don't keep making the mistake of using it."

Good frowned. "Were you four the ones who told me and Bad to put on the crown?"

"Dude, what?" Benny asked. "Is that why you ran up to me like that?"

Penny laughed and nodded. "Got to say, great job ignoring our orders like that. It was _hilarious_."

Kenny grinned as well. "Yeah, we even thought we might be able to rework the plans, but then the higher angels went and removed Benny's status as an angel so they could possess him. Huge jerks, aren't they?"

"But as it is," Jenny sighed and shook her head. "We're not done here, as you can tell. Now, where is he…?" She snapped her fingers again, and another figure appeared.

"Chris?" Benny asked. He noticed the others go on guard and he shook his head. "No, no, relax. He's fine… Chris, I suppose now's a good time for you to say why you had to kill me last time?"

Chris nodded and lowered his face scarf again, but this time no wings came out. At Benny's questioning look, Chris frowned. "I am no longer an angel either. They deemed me unsuitable for acting against them." He took in a breath and then continued. "The crown takes two sides and splits them. The destroying side goes to the angels while the innocent side stays here…"

"So Bad's not dead?" Good asked, hopeful.

"Not yet," Chris answered. "The two sides are still connected. Kill you, and your other side will die too. This is how it is for the Kings."

"But I don't understand," Benny continued. "Why…"

"...do you need a 'king' to do the destroying angel bit anyway?" Bad asked the myriad of angels around him. He glared around the speck of empty space he was standing on, unsure just what was happening, just _why_ it was happening. The other being ripped from his mind a second time weighed heavily on him, and he felt as if he would break at the slightest touch, but he continued to scowl and clench his fists, hoping to hold his own against the angels.

One angel moved forward to answer. "The angels themselves cannot do such mass destruction-"

"Because you're not supposed to!" Bad argued.

"So we require a mortal being who can," the angel continued, ignoring him. "We can give you great power to do this..."

"No." Bad growled and shook his head. "This plan was stupid from the start and you're all wrong. And why does it have to be _me_? Why not any other mortal?"

"You can't split normal mortals into their good and bad sides without complications," another angel answered. "You are already separated into two."

"Except we're not, a 'good and bad side'," Bad countered, throwing air quotes at them. "We're two full people, but we're co-dependently living in one body." After a pause he growled, glaring from over his shades. "Would you put us back together already?!"

"We cannot," the first angel answered. "Not until you fulfill your role."

"And what exactly is that?" he demanded. "You want the 'angry, bad' side of a person to be the one to destroy the universe, but isn't that the _opposite_ of what you need to have happen?!"

"No," the angel answered. "The destruction of all objects inside the universe will bring everything to equilibrium. There will be no one or thing left to damage the integrity of the universe itself, and our jobs will be complete. And then your role as King will be done."

Bad crossed his arms and straightened his back. "I believe I was told to tell you off something awful. And I have to say, that is the _worst_ plan to save the universe that there _ever_ was, and I'm glad it failed four times before and I refuse to do it this time. How stupid are you?"

The angels glared, and he suddenly felt a cold chill, as if he'd been encased in ice.

"You will wait here until you decide to destroy," the angel answered as they each slowly disappeared, taking the light from the stars in their wings with them. "You have before on a smaller scale, you stated you would if for the world's benefit… You will give in eventually."

"We'll see about that!" he growled at them, but the moment the last angel left, he cringed at the blanket of darkness and the icy air around him, and the emptiness in the back of his mind. He slowly lowered himself to the ground, or what mimicked ground with whatever space angel magic prison he was suffering in, and brought his knees against his chest like an innocent child, lost in fear and loneliness. "Good…" he muttered, closing his eyes tight, "Where are you…?"


	14. Chapter 14

Somehow, they managed to find Good's car. Good took one look at it and drew in on himself, and no one could get a word out of him until Business offered to drive him home. Good nodded and passed over the keys and then filed into the back seat to lay down after that whole ordeal. Benny took the passenger seat while the others decided to stay back and clean up the mess they left from the fight with the angels.

"So when you and him showed up the other day, this mess is what you were talking about?" Business asked Benny as he drove.

Benny nodded. "No idea where it would turn up at the time. We had to try and find out what was going on. Weird, though, that they'd let me look up the history and still think I'd agree with everything."

"Sounds like they were overconfident to me," Business mused. "Either that, or maybe they thought you'd learn something else."

Sighing, Benny nodded. "Yeah, wouldn't surprise me if the other space guys changed what we supposed to learn. Then again…"

"Then again what?" Business asked.

"Unikitty said that you knew about the crown showing up with the intent to destroy things?" Benny asked, turning his head towards the other man. "Care to explain how you know that? Your computer system didn't seem to know so much."

"You don't think I'd keep _all_ my information on a computer system, do you?" Business asked, glancing to the side nervously. As Benny narrowed his eyes, Business sighed. "Okay, look, Blue Guy…"

"Benny," he corrected.

"Right, Barney-."

"You're doing that on purpose," Benny pointed out.

"Uh… Yeah…" Business cleared his throat. "Okay. Benny. When I was looking for things to freeze the universe, like in that whole Kragle incident that we don't need to talk about, I found something that mentioned all the previous times the crown showed up and what the angels want to use it for. It said something about equilibrium, how once everything is destroyed, then nothing could be destroyed."

"You mean, like, if everything is broken down to it's smallest parts and spread evenly," Benny answered. "That would be what they mean by equilibrium."

"Exactly," Business nodded. "And, y'know, I didn't want anyone getting any ideas, since that was the exact opposite of what I wanted, so I hid _that_ piece of information where no one would find it."

Benny hummed. "Dude, when you say it like that, you make it sound like…"

"This huge plaque." Business lifted his hands from the steering wheel to pantomime the size, and Benny grabbed it before the drove off the road. Business smiled apologetically and grabbed the wheel again. "One with the story written on it, including how to destroy the crown."

"Really?" Benny frowned at him. "And you didn't think to bring this up sooner?"

"I'm bringing it up now, aren't I?" Business countered as he pulled into the driveway. "Come on, let's get Good Cop inside and then I can tell you where I hid the thing."

Good shook his head and stepped out of the car on his own. He took the keys from Business and unlocked the front door, carefully stepping over Benny's discarded spacesuit as he entered. Business followed him in, and Benny paused to bring in his suit.

Business searched around for a pen and paper, leaving Good to flop onto his couch while Benny grabbed a nearby stress ball and tossed into the air, catching it each time as it fell back down to his hand. Good watched him, face blank, and gave a forlorn sigh by the time Business stepped back into the room.

"Good Cop, come on, it can't be _that_ bad," Business sighed.

"Dude," Benny frowned before the ball hit his head as he missed his catch. He sighed and went back to tossing it while Business continued to speak.

"I know you're upset about losing Bad Cop, but come on, you're pretty much two separate people." Business cross his arms, frowning at him. "How is this a bad thing? Now you're free to make your own choices."

Good smiled wryly and turned his head towards Business. "Oh, is that why you thought it okay to get rid of me before?"

"This again?" Business shook his head. "Look, I'm sorry, I made some bad choices, but… C'mon, Bad Cop could survive on his own. Can't _you_ handle being separated?"

"You act like we're simply like any other twins," Good answered. "Don't you realize that we share a mind? We can hear each others' thoughts at all times… The only time we don't share is when we're dreaming, but even then we sometimes do. We're… We're like heads and tails on a coin. Two separate sides, but still connected… And tell me, what happens to a coin when you split the heads side from the tails side?"

"Is that even possible to do?" Benny asked.

Good nodded. "Exactly. Bad could handle it better, but he had his job to occupy him. It really is tiring, not having someone else to switch with or someone to help organize your thoughts… I don't understand how you two can handle being on your own."

"Remember what I said about a parallax, dude?" Benny asked.

Blinking, Good thought back and then hummed. "Only part of it. Two views of something, right?"

"Something like that." He frown as the caught the ball again and muttered a curse before continuing to toss it. "Anyway, to use the parallax to measure the distance away from something as distant as a star, you have to be as far from the other view as possible. That's why star distances are measured when the Earth is on opposite sides of its orbit around the sun. Now, since Bad actually is around… And his view and your view are as far as they could possibly be…"

"Is there a point to this?" Business asked.

"Dude, sit down and draw that map to the plaque," Benny snapped at him, glaring until Business did as told. " _Anyway,_ " he continued, "the way to continue is to figure out how far away we are from him."

"And how do we do that?" Good asked.

Benny caught the ball again and cursed again. He sighed and smiled at Good, shrugging at him. "You have a radio strapped to your shirt. How much you want to bet that Bad does too?"

"Would it even work at whatever distance it is?" Good frowned as he sat up and pulled the radio from his shirt, turning it over in his hand.

"One way to find out." Benny went back to tossing the ball.

"What are you doing that for, anyway?" Business asked, his eyes following the ball as it went up and down.

"I'll let you know if I can get it to work," Benny answered. "Are you working on that map or not?"

"Geeze, bossy, aren't we?" Business muttered before going back to the map and instructions.

Good shook his head and stood up. "I'll be right back." He went to his bedroom and shut the door behind him, then sitting down on the bed and staring at the radio in his hand. Sighing, he brought it to his lips and pressed the button. "Good to Bad, over."

The silence dragged on, and Good shut his eyes, willing himself not to cry. "Please…" he mumbled before pressing the button again. "Good to Bad. Do you copy? Over."

"Good?" the radio crackled. "Is… Is that you?"

Good felt his mental barriers drop in an instant. He couldn't sense Bad, but he knew he was there, and he smiled and answered. "Yes, it's me. Are you alright?"

"You wouldn't believe it, Good. How stupid these angels are," Bad answered.

"I know," Good replied, nodding. "And you're right. I hardly do believe it."

"This must be why a Cloud Cuckoo Lander is better for this," Bad sighed, shaking his head. "But I'm _not_ destroying the world. I don't care what they say."

Good reached back and clasped his hand around Bad's. "I know you won't. Where are you, Bad?"

"I don't know," Bad answered, giving a small squeeze. "I'm… I'm terrified, Good. I never knew how dark it could be without stars or lights."

"What about sounds?" Good asked. "Can you hear anything?"

"Just us talking," Bad replied. "It's echoing slightly. It's cold, too."

Good chuckled. "Is that crown as tight on your head as it is on mine?"

Bad smiled. "Probably tighter on yours. Yours is full of hot air."

"You're one to talk," Good answered. He sighed and leaned into Bad's back. "I miss you…"

Bad gripped his hand tight. "I miss you too. How's… How's Ben?"

"He's alright," Good answered. "Better than he was."

"The angels said that he… Y'know…"

"Those other space guys took care of it. But we're not sure where to go from here."

"I don't know either," Bad frowned. "At least you have the others there with you."

Good giggled. "Well, one is President Business, so perhaps you're lucky in that sense."

Bad smirked. "Perhaps I am."

"And you don't know where you are?" Good asked. "You can't see anything at all?"

"I'm on solid ground," Bad answered. "Who knows how long that stretches for… Might fall off if I try walking."

Good hummed. "They can't let you die. Not if they need you."

"Unless they want to try again with someone else," Bad argued. "Can you imagine me as an angel?"

"Would it be you or me?" Good asked. "Or both of us? Would they even allow that?"

Bad hummed. "I'm willing to bet they wouldn't. If the crown is ours now… Then they can't let us die else they'd have _us_ as the ones to pass it on next."

Good smiled. "Try walking, Bad. Just keep walking until your legs give out or you spy something of use. Maybe it'll at least keep you warm."

"Maybe," Bad answered, shifting and letting go of Good's hand to stand. "You'll come and find me, right?"

"Or die trying," Good nodded, standing as well. He frowned and shook his head. "I don't want to go."

"We have to," Bad answered, sighing. "Just promise me you won't have fun with Benny without me."

He laughed and nodded. "Of course… I love you, Bad."

"Love you too, Good," he answered. "I'll… I'll talk to you as soon as I find something. Over and out."

Good opened his eyes and the world became sharp, defining the absence in his mind, the presence that he was missing. He frowned and put his radio back on his shirt, wondering just where to go from there.

"YES!" Benny shouted from the other room, and Good hurried out in an instant to see what had him excited. Benny tossed the papers Business had been writing on just as Good walked in, Business giving a cry of complaint and Benny laughing triumphantly at each of the papers floating around them. "Good, look!" he called, rushing over to him and floating at his side. He pointed at the papers that Business diligently pulled down and reorganized and the ball floating near the ceiling. "Look, look, I can do it again! I can make things float again! I don't need to be a space angel to make things float!"

"Says the person with space wings," Business mumbled.

"What?" Benny asked. He looked over his shoulder and gasped. "Dude, what...?" He grabbed at one of the wings on his back, a mix of space and blue stars and nebulae, although smaller than his old wings, and his hand went straight through the wing just like it were the old ones. "But… But I really _don't_ think I'm an angel this time…"

"Oh, did we forget?" Kenny asked suddenly, causing each of them to jump and causing Business to drop his papers again. Kenny grinned from his place on the couch, stretching his similar, red wings. "My, I think we forgot to tell them."

"Tsk, tsk," Lenny laughed from his place leaning in the doorway, his white wings spread. "You would think it would be Penny or Jenny's job, given things."

"Oh, but this is more fun," Penny chuckled, sitting where Benny had been and stretching wings depicting light disappearing into a dark abyss.

"I made more coffee," Jenny answered, stepping in from the kitchen with yellow wings. "And croissants for you, Good. Sorry, there's still plenty more to discuss, but we needed to get you away from the others first."

Business gathered up the papers again and set them on the table. "Alright, so that's everything you asked me to do for you, right?" he asked Jenny as he stood straight again. "Let these guys use the Octan computers for the information you wanted to give them instead what the Higher Angels wanted them to find, say what I needed to at the fight, stall for time with the fake plaque thing while Good could contact Bad and Benny got his new wings… Anything else?"

"Dude, you were in on this?" Benny asked.

"Hey, a group of mystical, god-like beings show up on your doorstep, you do what they tell you," Business retorted. "Even if they keep tacking on new tasks. Seriously, is that everything?"

"You can join us for coffee if you don't say anything," Lenny offered.

Business shook his head. "Pass. Bad Cop gets the brand I _don't_ like. You can really taste how different it is and ew."

Jenny nodded. "Send you home then? Awake, or do you want to think this was a dream?"

" _Awake_ ," Business answered. "I still have jobs to do today. And don't mess with my memories either. I want to remember all this."

"Have a nice day, sir," Good answered. "I'll be sure to have Bad tell you what happened after we get him back."

"Make sure you do," Business answered. "And wash those pants before returning them."

"Right-o," Benny saluted.

Jenny snapped her fingers, and Business disappeared. Kenny and Penny stood up and followed their companions into the kitchen while Benny and Good lingered behind. Good looked to Benny but then smiled and held out his hand. Benny smiled in return and gave his hand a small squeeze before leading him into the kitchen yet again.


	15. Chapter 15

Benny sat at the table with the other space guys while Good busied himself preparing some of the food his mother gave him the Tuesday before. Jenny brought in a chair from the other room and set it up between Benny and Penny before sitting down in the one she previously set up between Kenny and Lenny, the latter two glaring at her as she sat.

"You sure you don't want anything?" Good asked the others as he sat down in the empty chair.

"We're fine," Jenny assured him. "Just make sure you get something. I hadn't realize you and Benny only had croissants and coffee the past few days."

Benny shrugged. "Not that it really bothers me, since I was an angel for a while… I guess being whatever I am now explains why I still don't actually feel like I _need_ to eat?"

Penny nodded. "Right. Okay, well, we're not angels, obviously. We don't follow their rules, we have more power than them, we have more of an idea how stupid the higher angels are being."

"Business really called it," Kenny chuckled. "God-like beings. Basically, we're the last resort for saving the universe. We have all the power we need to do anything we need to."

"More importantly," Lenny continued, "we know when to use our power and when not to."

"If we do have any rules," Jenny said, "it's that we don't let the angels know about us. They'd be harder to maintain if they knew about us, what we are and what we can do, just as they became hard to maintain when the crown came into being."

"How did it?" Good asked. "And how do we destroy it, then? If President Business's story about the plaque was a lie…"

"It's not a normal relic," Jenny answered. "We can't tell you the nature of the other relics, but the crown was fabricated as a lie. Just as there are angels, imagine that devils exist. Few and far between, but with the intent to lead astray… To trick and deceive as a manner of entertainment."

"They don't care how close the universe comes to being destroyed," Penny said, shaking her head. "They will do it if they want. One made the crown one day and convinced the higher angels that the sanctity of the universe's structure is more important than universe itself, all the people and creations in it."

"People have died where they weren't supposed to for the sake of the higher angels' belief," Kenny frowned. "It's gone on long enough, and so we need to get the crown back and get rid of it for good."

"You'll have to find your other half," Lenny nodded at Good. "Once you're together again, you'll _be_ together again, and the crown will be null and void. Bring it back to us and we can break it for good."

"It's risky, of course," Jenny continued. "You have to know where to go, and we can't help with that. Moreover, you'll have the higher angels against you, trying to stop you, and they won't give up the crown so easily. Not when it's their views on the line."

"Higher angels are so _messy_ ," Kenny sighed.

"Insistent they're right even when proven wrong," Lenny groaned. "Next to impossible to reason with. They just have too much pride to admit that they've been tricked."

Benny shook his head. "You still haven't explained the wings."

"You weren't supposed to die," Penny shrugged. "Not again. But you did, so the only way to fix that is to compensate for what you lost… And we can't have the angels just killing you again, so you're one of us now…"

Jenny smiled at him. "You can do what you want, anything at all, but we ask that you consider your actions, like how we must. Do what you think is right. You could transport you and Good directly to Bad, for instance, but keep in mind how damaging this could be to either of them, given that they're mortal. All the same, you'll need restricted omnipotence to finish everything… Afterwards you can do what you want with your powers… Keep them and work with us, or let them go…"

"Are you gods?" Good asked, furrowing his brow.

The four of them grinned.

"If you want to call us that," Kenny started.

"We would not be opposed," Lenny finished.

"And other than what you did so far," Benny asked, "you're not going to help? It's up to me and Good?"

"And Bad, on his end," Penny nodded. "When two in one and one make three. You've now made three, haven't you?"

"Just bring us the crown, Ben," Jenny smiled at him. "We gave you all you need. Your powers, your suit, your ship… We have a lot of faith in you. Meet us outside the coffee shop when you have it."

With that, the four spacemen disappeared, leaving Benny to sigh and swallow the last of his coffee while Good finished his food.

"What did Bad tell you?" Benny asked.

"It's dark and cold wherever he is," he answered. "He couldn't see any light at all."

"The secret location that the higher angels meet in, maybe?" Benny shrugged. "Gosh, is that everything we have?"

Good nodded. "He said he'll walk around and contact us again if he finds anything…"

Benny tapped his fingers on the table. "Crown black as night with gems like stars… Stars at night… Crown of stars… Constellations, maybe? Corona Australis or Corona Borealis…? Gosh, we really need to know what else is around…"

The radio crackled again and Good pulled it off his shirt to look at it.

"Wine," Bad gasped. "It smells like wine. Gosh, _why_ does it smell like _wine_?"

"Good timing," Benny laughed. "That's it. That's it."

"Benny knows where you are," Good laughed. "We'll get to you soon, Bad."

"I hope so," Bad answered. "I'm going to find a place that doesn't stink as bad. Ugh. I'll see you. Bye."

Good put the radio away and smiled at Benny. "So… Where do we go? And why?"

"The angels really seem to like the Greek myths," Benny answered, rushing back to the living room to put on his spacesuit, his wings disappearing under it as he did so. "Calling me your Pandora since I'm supposed to have caused Bad to bring destruction, for instance. But here… The myth here is, when the god of wine married, he put the crown his bride wore into the heavens to commemorate the wedding. The Corona Borealis. It… It better be where he is or I don't know what we'll do."

Good nodded. "I trust you. We'll find him."

Benny nodded. "Alright, let's test out these so called powers…"

Benny grabbed Good's hand and guided him outside to the spaceship in the driveway and helped him into it. Once they were both strapped in, Benny put the ship into the middle of the street and then he flashed a thumbs-up at Good before taking off into space.

"You're okay?" Benny asked once they were soaring past the moon. "Not sick or anything?"

"I'm fine," Good answered. "Is that because of you…?"

"Partially, yeah." Benny brought the ship idle around Mars, and motioned for Good to look out.

Good watched the universe around them, going almost breathless at the scene. "Wow…" he breathed. "If only Bad could see this…"

"He will," Benny determined. "I just need to triangulate a course and we'll be good to go." He messed with the controls and took a deep breath. "I can make it go faster, since the nearest star is over 46 light-years away… Of course under angel conventions, the real location should be closer. But you should sleep. I'll go just slow enough to give you time to sleep, so we'll get there Saturday… And if everything goes well, we'll be done with this all on Sunday."

Good nodded. "Please…" He leaned back and closed his eyes. "Thank you, Benny."

"No problem," Benny smiled softly. He took a deep breath and then took off into the unknown.

Good willed himself to sleep, willed himself to relax. Bad tried meeting him, he could tell, but they were blocked off by a blanket of chilly air and silence. He pressed his hand against the blanket to grab at it, but the metaphysical wall just repaired any damage he caused.

 _"There has to be another way,"_ he thought. _"To get in, to get to you."_

He could sense Bad's agreement, and he frowned and stuck his hand through the wall, watching as it morphed around it. He pressed forward and let it encase him. Trudging forward, determined, he ignored the cold sending shivers to his bone, he ignored silence deafening his ears. He had to continue, he just had to. He kept walking and walking, just as Bad kept walking and walking.

 _"Corona Borealis,"_ he could hear at last. _"The northern crown."_

 _"I wonder if they know,"_ he thought. _"That those devils tricked them."_

 _"Which devils?"_ someone whispered. _"What tricks?"_

He thought of the devils, how they looked, how they acted. _"These devils."_

_"I know them…  They are tricksters? What tricks?"_

He nodded. _"The crown. It's just a game. To cause as much damage as possible. To be counteracted at the slightest moment to spare…"_

 _"The game bores them now, does it?"_ the someone asked.

He nodded again. _"I suppose so."_

 _"It bores us as well,"_ the someone answered. _"Very well, innocence. You and diligence are more than we thought. Give our apologies to those we were unjust towards. We were wrong, and we will now admit that. You will not see us again, if all goes well."_

 _"Just like that?"_ he thought.

 _"We work in mysterious ways,"_ the someone chuckled. _"Just as space does. And as the stars in the sky led to your creation, so will they lead you to your final destination. In time…"_

He smiled. _"Thank you. I know you meant well. You were simply led astray."_

_"Sleep well, innocence. You and diligence will be back together soon."_

His eyes shot open at a cascading crash, like glass shards falling to the ground below.

"We're here!" Benny announced. "That was easy! I wonder where all the angels are?"

Good shook his head. "Where's Bad?"

Benny shook his head and stood, turning around to suddenly see Bad standing there, crown on his head, looking confused as Benny now did.

"I…" Benny frowned. "I didn't…?"

"I think…" Bad cleared his throat. "I think the angels did."

"What?" Benny furrowed his brow. "Why?"

"Good told them they were tricked…" Bad shrugged. "I heard it too… Good?"

Good got up and without another word, he ran to his brother, throwing his arms around him and tackling him to the floor. The crown rolled off their head until it clunked against the bulkhead and rattled to a stop on the floor. Bad got off his back and smiled at Benny.

"Let's get home," he nodded. Good laughed as he switched and he wiped tears from his eyes. "Please, Benny. This has gone on long enough."

Benny nodded, furrowing his brow and frowning. "You know it has… Hmm…"

Bad sat down in his seat again. "What is it?"

"Did that seem a bit… anticlimactic to you?" Benny asked as he lowered himself into his seat as well.

"Perhaps," Good mused, "but don't we deserve something calm for once?"

"Is that really what you think you deserve?" Benny asked as he took his ship back into open space. "Think about it. After everything you've been through. All the heartache and pain… All the work you've done for what you think is right…"

"Happiness," Bad answered, frowning. "We deserve happiness. I'm tired of putting up with everything…"

Benny nodded. "Stick to that belief. I'll let Good explain to you what you've missed. Happy Saturday… Now let's see how Sunday fares…"


	16. Chapter 16

They landed back on Earth, just outside the space museum. Benny helped Good down and then went back for the crown. After he grabbed it, he jumped down next to Bad and flashed him a thumbs up.

"Weren't we supposed to go to the coffee shop?" Good asked.

Benny nodded. "That's where they told us to go, yeah. That's where they _want_ us to meet them."

Bad hummed. "So, we just need to give it to the other four now, right?"

Laughing, Benny shook his head. "No. That is not what we need to do at all."

Good frowned. "But they said…"

"They're liars," Benny answered. "We've dealt with so much crud these last few days. You know it too, don't you? That they're liars?"

Bad sighed and nodded. "Yes, but I just want it to be over with."

"Can't rush it, man," Benny sighed. He growled, eyes glancing up and down the street. "Sunday is the day of rest… So let's get this over with so we can rest."

Good shook his head. "Do you think those liars will know to meet us here?"

"What makes you think we're liars?" Penny asked from down the street, standing with the other three.

"Come on, Ben," Kenny urged.

"Just give us the crown," Lenny coaxed.

Benny snarled, holding the crown tight against his chest. "No way, man, I have this figured out now. I know _exactly_ what's going on. The angels were tricked by _YOU_. You're the devils you were talking about, aren't you? Both gods and devils… What Pandora let out of her box… This is all just a game to you, isn't it?"

The four of them grinned wildly and nodded. Jenny stepped forward. "Oh, Benjamin Blu Chu, you _precious_ child. You're so much better than we could have _dreamed!_ Yes, we tricked the angels into believing that to save the universe they must destroy it. Yes, we gave them the crown. And why wouldn't we? How much more boring would it be if everything went just _fine_ without any conflict? Of course, we can't let everything be destroyed. Good boy, we aren't evil."

Bad stepped in front of Benny. "And what? What are you going to do now, hmm?"

"We weren't lying about Benny being one of us now," Penny laughed.

"We were about giving him a choice," Kenny smiled.

"We'll be taking him with us and leaving," Lenny affirmed.

"But just forcing him would be too simple," Jenny finished. "You know us. What fun is it if there isn't a game to it?"

Benny shook his head. "You know what? I want to make my own prophecy. I think I will."

"Benny…?" Good asked, glancing back at him.

"Ruby, Citrine, Diamond, Quartz," Benny pulled gems off the crown for each stone he named and tossed them to the other four, where they changed to match each of their respective colors. "Divinity and sinful sorts," he snapped his fingers and a paper coffee cup and a croissant appeared in Bad's hand. "One will fight and one will lose, one will alter damaging views."

Bad narrowed his eyes at the coffee but then looked up. "What one destroys is for the good of all." Good blinked at the croissant. "What one restores comes after a fall."

Benny grinned. "And in these five, a choice remains."

Good gulped. "The crown will leave…" Bad closed his eyes. "Or the king still reigns."

The four frowned and huddled together for a short talk before turning back towards them. Jenny shook her head, frowning. "You… You _are_ chaotic. You really would fit well as a devil, both of you. Are you sure you want to play things by a prophecy you just _made up_?"

"On the spot?" Kenny added.

"As tag-team?" Lenny frowned.

"That makes no sense?" Penny finished.

"Oh, _we're_ not the ones playing," Benny grinned. He set down the crown and then set the coffee and croissant next to it. "There. That's who you're playing against. The divinity." He pointed to the coffee. "And a sinful sort." He pointed to the croissant. He grabbed onto Bad's arm and tugged him close. "Now, if you don't mind, I am in a _ridiculous_ need of some… Well…" He motioned for Bad to lean in and then whispered in his ear.

Bad blushed, and Good had to cover his gleeful grin as he giggled like a child in a candy shop. "Benny, that's awful!" he laughed.

"You're having us…" Jenny looked at the coffee and croissant. "You're having us act out your prophecy against some _breakfast food_?"

Benny rolled his eyes and nodded. "Dude, yeah. Look, this entire thing started with _him_ and his weird beliefs," Benny motioned to Good who waved. "And darnit, if it doesn't end with his beliefs…"

"We're…" Kenny glanced nervously from the food to Jenny. "We're allowed not to play by his rules, right? Even if we gave him powers like us?"

Jenny shook her head. "Penny wasn't supposed to give him _full_ powers…"

Penny cleared her throat, fidgeting with her black quartz like a nervous habit. "He didn't wake up right away… I was worried I didn't give enough to him, so I gave him full powers by mistake when I slapped him…"

Lenny gripped his diamond tightly. "But he listed five things… There's six between the four of us and the two… Food items? Really? We're going by the _cop's_ beliefs?"

Bad crossed his arms. "They're not the worst beliefs I could have."

"They're…" Kenny gasped. "They're trying to play us up like antagonists! We're not antagonists, are we?"

"Forcing me to go with you?" Benny pointed out. "Or rather, making it a game since you can't?"

"Perhaps we phrased it wrong," Jenny offered, tapping the edge of her citrine nervously. "It would be beneficial for everyone if you…"

"Pass," Benny answered lifting his hand to silence her. "Danny and I are going home. We'll talk to you _after_ the two of us finally relieve some of the tension we have."

"Don't just leave us with this stupid stuff!" Kenny shouted, throwing his ruby down.

Benny turned around and waved over his shoulder as he led Good away back to his nearby spaceship. Soon enough, the ship zoomed overhead, leaving the other four plus their two opponents and the crown in the dust.

Hours later, a good distance away from the museum, Bad and Good took their turns talking with Benny, smiling at him as Benny rambled excitedly.

"And space! Gosh, I finally got to show you space!" Benny laughed and curled into him. "Gorgeous, wasn't it? Definitely something worth believing in."

Good nodded and pulled him close. "Yes, it was amazing. The circumstances could have been better, of course."

Benny sighed. "I'm not sure if we can do it again, of course. Gosh, I bet you never thought everything would turn out this way from that first meeting at the coffee shop."

Bad shook his head. "Never could have dreamt it if I tried. Didn't I tell you I didn't want to go on a crazy adventure?"

He kissed him. "Shush, you knew it was going to happen from the first time I stripped."

"This is the first time you went all the way down, of course," Good reminded.

"Yeah," he sighed, happily. He giggled and pressed close. "Want to go again?"

The doorbell rang and they both groaned.

"Ignore it?" Benny whispered.

The doorbell rang again, and Good nodded and kissed Benny, but flinched as the chime kept repeating over and over in quick succession.

 **"Benjamin Blu Chu, we can keep this up for eternity, so bring your fully clothed kiester to the door _this instant_ ,"** Jenny's voice boom at them.

"Just my kiester?" Benny asked.

 **"Darnit Benny!"** Kenny shouted.

"Okay, fine, relax!" Benny sighed, slipping out of bed.

Bad followed him and they helped each other with their clothes. They made their way, hand in hand, to the front door and opened it to find the four Spacemen holding a cake and wearing party hats.

Benny grinned. "Yeah?"

"You _lied_ to us, you twerp," Lenny growled.

"We were standing there for _hours_ trying to figure out what to do!" Penny groaned.

"It was the greatest thing we ever saw," Kenny nodded.

"So that prophecy you made up…" Jenny asked.

"Wasn't actually a prophecy," Benny answered. "Dude, not every prophetic rhyming thing is actually going to come true. We literally just threw some words together."

"Well, we brought you a cake, in any case," Jenny smiled, holding it out. "To congratulate you on your… marriage."

"Yeah, we totally… married," Benny snorted and laughed and Bad cracked a smile before Good joined him in laughing.

"Ben, seriously," Kenny told him. "That was the _greatest thing we ever saw_."

"Mortals, man," Lenny laughed. "Gotta love it when you find the ones who know how to use their powers for things like that. You passed the test in any rate. Knowing you, you knew it was a test."

Benny stood straight and nodded. "Yeah, I had a feeling. What did you end up doing?"

"Destroyed the crown, as promised," Penny answered. "Had me toss it in a black hole first thing."

"So, yeah, that's the end of it," Jenny shrugged. "We were hoping to make a more dramatic ending, with you challenging us to keep your freedom before managing to defeat us and destroying the crown yourself. The gem thing really caught us off-guard, and then the coffee and croissant thing didn't help."

"Nah, you guys are cool," Benny assured them. "But seriously, I _really_ needed a break after everything. Now, really, tone down the messing with people thing. Get your kicks some other way, will ya? Less devastating."

Jenny nodded. "Yes, I agree… Hmm, I guess we really are something like the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. What do you say? Ready to retire?"

"Nah, we just need to use our skills better," Kenny answered. "Len and I talked about it…"

"Muses," Lenny said, draping one arm around Kenny to pull him close and then swiping the other one out as if to write it in the sky. "We have some people we're going to influence. Make them make a movie about the thing with Emmet being the Special and everything."

"We're going to make them use plastic bricks," Kenny bounced. "And people will be _attracted_ to them and question their sanity! They'll write novel length fanfiction about _plastic bricks._ "

"One of the characters will be played by _Will Ferrell!_ " Lenny laughed.

"Who's Will Ferrell?" Good whispered to Benny who shrugged.

"Oh, man, I can't top that," Penny chuckled, shaking her head. "Hmm, the muse thing is a great idea, though. I'll have popular writers suddenly turn their series full of tragedy to indulge in reader's tears. Haha, that'd be _great_."

"You three do that," Jenny answered. "I'm actually retiring. Chris and I are going to maintain the space museum and make sure the other angel artifacts don't get used for the wrong reason."

"You'd have to keep some power for that," Benny argued.

She nodded. "I know, but I'll not be playing the 'doing this for entertainment' part this time."

Benny flashed a thumbs up. "Good on ya. Now, what flavor's the cake?"

"No, hold it," Kenny frowned at him.

"You haven't said whether not you're keeping your powers," Lenny pointed out.

Benny hummed. "Do you see wings?" he asked.

"No," the others answered.

"Could I still have wings?" he asked.

" _Yes,_ " the others frowned at him.

He grinned. "And you're not going to find out for sure."

Kenny stepped past Jenny and put his hands on Benny's shoulders. "I love you."

"Hey!" Lenny scowled.

"Love you _more_ , you nerd!" Kenny sighed before returning to him.

"Cake," Benny repeated. "Flavor?"

"Marble, with vanilla buttercream frosting," Jenny answered, handing it to Good who eyed it longingly.

"Thank you," Good smiled at her. "Benny?"

Benny nodded and slammed the door in their faces.

 **"Benny!"** Penny called as he and Good walked to the kitchen.

"We're not inviting you in for cake," Benny answered. "We had enough of all the celestial shenanigans the last week."

 **"Not even one slice?"** Lenny asked.

"Get your own!" Bad ordered.

 **"We're leaving, don't worry,"** Jenny assured them. **"And with any luck, this will the last time you hear a voice like this."**

"Better be," Benny answered. He waited a moment and then nodded. "Okay, for real now. It's over. Cake first or after?"

"After," Bad decided. "Get the fridge door."

Benny helped him put the cake away and then hooked his arm into his, leading him back to the bedroom. "So after all that happened. What do _you_ believe in?"

"You," Good answered, shutting the door. Bad pulled Benny close and smiled. "After all, we found god in _you_ first thing, and that hasn't changed."

Benny laughed and shook his head. "We're about to… You know… Don't make this weird, dude."

Good nodded. "Even so, we believe in you." Bad kissed Benny's forehead. "You're the only one who we could trust, since you were just as done with everything as us…"

"And I still believe in space," Benny nodded. "Now come _on_. Stop stalling."

"Whatever you want," he replied. The other took in his indulgences, and he matched them just as fervently.

With their old belief, their inside joke, long behind them, they now had a new belief to occupy them: that they deserved to be happy, and so did Benny, and everyone else they cared about.

And in that, they found their god, and changed for the better.


End file.
